Vega Saga part one: Uncertianty
by Richforce
Summary: The first of three parts. A new enemy named Vega arrives seeking a mysterious vault. The Salior scouts must gain new powers and make new allies to fight Vega and his Blackstar empire. Completed
1. Changing Course

The Vega Saga Part One: Uncertainty  
By Richforce  
  
Richforce: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor have I ever claimed to do so. Well, there was that one time I was by myself in a public restroom...  
  
Two guys in black suits and sunglasses grab Richforce.  
  
Richforce: Hey, who are you people? Where are you taking me!?  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter One: Changing Course  
  
"Sunspots are temporary areas of concentrated magnetic field on the sun, where convection of hot matter from the core is inhibited, resulting in a cooler, darker area on the photosphere." The teacher droned on.  
  
Serena was bored out of her skull. It has been about two years since the defeat of Chaos, Serena and her friends were now in their senior year of high school and life seemed to return to normal, maybe a little too normal. Peace was defiantly swell in her book but she felt that she needed a little excitement in her life, and she certainly wasn't getting it from this guy.  
  
{They should put a warning label on him.} she thought. {Danger, do not operate heavy machinery while attending this man's class.} Sure she worked hard to get her average up, but it wasn't easy. {Well I've got a date with Darien tonight, so maybe I'll get a little excitement.} She daydreamed about a romantic dinner, a little dancing, and that kiss...  
  
"Serena." The teacher said snapping Serena back to reality. "Can you tell me when a sunspot cycle begins or ends?"  
  
She just froze. {Oh my god, I haven't been listening! What should I do?}  
  
"Serena, answer sometime before the bell please." He asked.  
  
She panicked. "I don't know!" She blurted out.  
  
"That is correct. There is no way to predict the origin or termination of a sunspot cycle."  
  
Her classmates all laughed at her as breathed a sigh of relief. The bell rang in the hall.  
  
"That's our time for today; remember read pages 235-247 in your textbook as your homework assignment." The teacher said as he dismissed the class.  
  
{That was too close!} she thought to herself {Now to get this homework done, go home and change clothes before my date.} Yes everything was normal, maybe a little too normal.  
  
~*~  
  
Meanwhile, somewhere in a distant corner of our galaxy two bounty hunters, Turquoise and Opal, were about to finish a transaction.  
  
"I don't like this Turquoise," said Opal as they walked down the hallway to the throne room where their client was waiting. "I think we should just take what he promised us originally and then get back to Romna before he gets on to us."  
  
"You worry too much Opal." said Turquoise. "We should get what we deserve after all the trouble this little babble has caused us." He looked at the little diamond shaped stone he held in his hand. "Once we get that and the reward for turning this guy and that old fossil in, we will spend the rest of our lives living the good life."  
  
A pair of massive stone doors opened before them as they walked to the shadowed figure on the throne, next to him was what looked to them like the oldest man in the entire universe. His white beard grew all the way to the end of his long flowing robes; his eyes glowed with an eerie yellow light.  
  
"Ah, you have returned." said the figure on the throne. "I trust you have the item I requested."  
  
"Yes, Prince Vega." said Turquoise. "But it wasn't easy. Our cost has just tripled."  
  
{Master, I have read their minds. They intend to betray us to our enemies!} Vega heard in his mind.  
  
Vega looked to the old man and thought {Do what you must Merlor. We have come too close to be stopped now.}  
  
Merlor spoke. "This should more than cover your new price." And with that a chest filled with rare jewels appeared.  
  
Turquoise was stunned speechless as he handed the stone to Vega. Opal said to Merlor. "Oh thank you! Your wisdom is only out matched by your generosity!"  
  
"You may leave now." said Vega. And at that they left back to their ship.  
  
"Is this a haul or what?!" yelled Turquoise. "We just have to tell those insurgents where to find Vega and we'll be set for life!"  
  
Opal started to stammer. "Uh, T-turquoise; are t-treasure ch-chests supposed to g-glow like that?"  
  
~*~  
  
From his window at the star fortress Vega saw the ship explode into pieces. "You just can't trust anyone anymore." He then turned to the stone in his hand. "Merlor, call them. The time has come at long last."  
  
"Prim! Axel!" Merlor called.  
  
A tall thin guy with spiky red hair wearing a black sleeveless jacket, a red t-shirt and blue jeans dropped down from nowhere. "Ladies and gentlemen, Axel is in da house!"  
  
A girl with pink hair and long blue nails came from the hallway. She wore a blue shirt with a white jacket and pants. "This had better be good Uncle Merlor. I'm missing my soaps!"  
  
Merlor sighed. "This is why you never work with family." His niece and nephew's I.Q. level was some where between that of cottage cheese and a toaster oven.  
  
Vega opened up the stone and a hologram of a star system with nine planets filled the room. "I never would have guessed it would back there."  
  
"Behold!" said Merlor. "What we seek is in this system on the third planet from the star."  
  
Prim spoke up. "Oh, the pretty little blue one?"  
  
"Yes, the pretty little blue one. We shall change course immediately to the planet this map calls Earth."  
  
{That system.} Vega thought. {Maybe I'll see her again.}  
  
~*~  
  
"Serena you look absolutely angelic." said Darien.  
  
"Well I do feel like I'm in heaven." said Serena. The couple had dinner at a decent restaurant and was now walking through the park to a night club.  
  
"You know it won't be long now."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Till you will be able to marry me; we both know our destiny."  
  
"Let's take it one day at a time."  
  
"Ok so tonight..." Darien came closer to kiss Serena when something knocked her down.  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
"What the..."then something hit Darien.  
  
"Ok, what's going on here?!" Serena shouted.  
  
The two of them looked to see Rini and Diana trying to get up. Although it had been close to three years since they last saw the two visitors from the future they didn't appear to have aged any.  
  
"Rini what are you doing here?!"  
  
"Well we..."Rini started to say. "That's funny I knew just a moment ago."  
  
"I can't remember anything either!" said Diana.  
  
"Looks like I have some visitors to take care of again." said Darien. "Serena, do you mind if you help me take them home?"  
  
"Guess I better." Serena said but then thought to herself. {But if my future self thinks she can drop Rini on me anytime something happens, I'm going to get myself committed when I become her.}  
  
~*~  
  
Vega looked at the star trails from his private chambers. {It won't be long my little star.} he thought to himself "Soon I will make the universe we always desired and no can stop me. No one!"  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Sorry about my absence. It was a little my lawyers against your lawyers thing with the owners of Sailor Moon. But since I don't have any lawyers it was a little one-sided and I owe them money. Looks like Sailor Moon has a whole new fight on her hands. So stay with me. Your reviews aren't required, but much appreciated. Review by emailing Richforce@Adelphia.net 


	2. The Fury of Rage

Richforce: I do NOT own Sailor Moon. I want to avoid last chapters fiasco, because of that I now have to place ads in my fiction to pay those people.  
  
Anyway this chapter is brought to you by Benson's Beans. We do our best to seal in that real bean flavor. Benson's Bean's "they're the beaniest!"  
  
Chapter 2: The Fury of Rage  
  
"No way, you're really going to ask him!" Molly squealed.  
  
Serena looked to Molly and said "Well we have been dating for a while and I think that now is the time to ask him to go steady."  
  
Molly sighed. "Well you know how men are about commitment. Whenever I bring up the subject with Melvin he suddenly gets an Asthma attack."  
  
"Oh, that's horrible."  
  
"I know, especially since he doesn't have Asthma."  
  
Serena looked at her all wide eyed but then looked at her watch. "Oh I'm late again! See you soon, Bye!" And she ran of to the shrine.  
  
~*~  
  
The other Scouts were waiting along with Luna and Artemis. Serena rushed up the steps. "Sorry! What did I miss?"  
  
"Nothing actually." said Luna. "But you still have to work on your promptness."  
  
"Nothing at all, I was at expecting to hear that something was wrong because of this meeting."  
  
"The reason for this meeting is because nothing is happening." said Amy. "It feels like the calm before the storm. I think something big is going to happen."  
  
"Well I think we crushed all the scumbags that were threatening the world right now." said Lita.  
  
"Your just guessing." said Mina. "For all we know, they're just biding their time waiting to catch us off guard."  
  
"I agree with Lita." said Raye. "I haven't sensed anything over the past two years. Maybe we did win."  
  
"In any event, now is not the time to slack off." said Luna.  
  
"Yes, you should still be training." said Artemis.  
  
"And you think I haven't?" said Serena. "For your information I came up with a new move. I almost wish we get attacked just so I can so you!"  
  
"By the way, how did your date with Darien last week go?" asked Mina.  
  
"Fine until Rini and Diana dropped in. It was fun seeing them again but I was looking forward to some time alone with him. Maybe I'll have better luck at the movies tomorrow."  
  
"Well it's getting late I think we should head home." said Amy.  
  
"Ok, see you later." said Serena. Luna followed her home and Artemis followed Mina. When Serena entered the living room she saw Sammy treating some bruises with ice.  
  
"Same guys as last time?" Serena asked.  
  
"If you're talking about Eddie and those two geeks who call themselves his friends, than yes." Sammy and Mika; both now freshmen; were having bully problems of late, mostly at the hands of a tenth grader named Eddie.  
  
"You really got to stop getting into trouble with him."  
  
"He just makes me so angry, I feel like I should..."  
  
Serena interrupted him. "Hitting back won't solve this problem; it will just get you into more trouble. Besides you'd never win."  
  
"I guess you're right."  
  
"Listen, I have homework to do. We'll talk later."  
  
~*~  
  
Vega's star fortress entered earth's orbit. He called Merlor, Prim and Axel into his chamber.  
  
"We have a problem; it seems that the vault will be harder to get to than first anticipated."  
  
"You're not kidding." said Axel. "Those humans built a city right on top of it!"  
  
Prim had a suggestion. "Like, why don't we just blast it off the face of the planet?"  
  
"It would attract unwanted attention and we risk destroying the vault!" said Merlor. "We need to find the vault's exact location and I have just the plan."  
  
"Continue." said Vega.  
  
"I will send Prim and Axel down to Earth and they will find it."  
  
"Uh, Uncle Merlor, are you sure about this?" said Axel. "We have trouble finding the remote control."  
  
"I will give you tools to aide you in your search." He pulled out a large crystal and a handful of several smaller gems. "Axel this is called a Nightmare Stone. Throw it into the heart of a human and his or her negative thoughts and emotions will create a monster called a Nightmare. Nightmares can unearth hidden energy sources like that of the vault. Prim, these stones are called Ingots. If you get into trouble; which you probably will; throw them on the ground and they will become warriors who will do your bidding. Do you understand?"  
  
"Uh, no." said Axel.  
  
"You lost me after you said `I will give you tools to aide in your search'" said Prim.  
  
"Good help is so hard to find." said Merlor. "You will learn more by using them than hearing me yammer on. " He turned to Vega. "Does this plan meet with your approval my lord?'  
  
"Only on the condition that you don't cause any permanent harm to these humans." said Vega.  
  
"Why, my Lord?"  
  
Vega raised his voice. "I don't need to explain my reasons for you just do it and fast!"  
  
"As you wish my lord. You two heard him; get going!"  
  
"Don't worry." said Axel. "We'll find the Vault without any trouble at all." He then tripped on a rug and they both rushed to Earth.  
  
"Hard to believe that they are from the same gene pool as you are." said Vega.  
  
"They're from the shallow end I'm afraid." said Merlor.  
  
~*~  
  
Serena was talking to Rini before the big date. "I don't understand." said Rini. "Why does Darien want to take you to a scary movie?"  
  
"It's an old guy's trick." said Serena. "They take you to a horror movie so that when you get scared you cuddle up close to them."  
  
"So you're not falling for it?"  
  
"I'll pretend to, but then I'll ask him to go steady."  
  
Darien walked out of his apartment. "So ready for 'The Curse Experiment'?"  
  
"I don't have anymore homework to do today so I think I can draw up enough courage." said Serena. "Rini you and Diana will be picked up by Amy and the others in a few minutes have fun."  
  
"Thanks we will!" said Rini.  
  
~*~  
  
Sammy was heading home trying to avoid Eddie. He took a few back alleys to get there as soon as possible. {Almost there.} he thought to himself. {Just a few more blocks.}  
  
He turned into an Alley to find Eddie and his two thugs were there hanging out. "Well, lookie who found our secret meeting place." said Eddie. "Now, what's going to happen?"  
  
"Your going to forget I was ever here?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"I'm going to get pounded?"  
  
"Judges?" Eddie made a buzzer sound. "I'm sorry, but you failed to phrase your response in the form of a question. Thank you for playing."  
  
Eddie made a fist, but Sammy ran out there as fast as he could. "Don't just stand there get him!" Eddie yelled to his thugs.  
  
Sammy stopped in an Alley to catch his breath. "Oh, I really wish I could hammer that guy!"  
  
A strange voice came from nowhere. "Axel, I think we found our first victim!"  
  
"Who are you?" said Sammy.  
  
Axel and Prim stepped out of the shadows. "Oh, just a couple of evil space aliens, we're going to have to barrow you for a while."  
  
"Oh no, your not!" said Sammy.  
  
Axel took the stone in his hand and threw it at Sammy's heart. "NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
As the stone entered his heart Sammy's form was surrounded by a tall monster with red fur, sharp claws, and a mouth full of jagged teeth. The creature roared and started sniffing.  
  
"Wow, that was like, totally totally awesome!" said Prim.  
  
"Yeah." said Axel "I'm going to call him Rage."  
  
Eddie and his thugs entered the Alley. "Oh wuss boy, come out and play. We won't hurt you. Much."  
  
They suddenly came face to face with Rage. The beast snarled at them. "Uh you guys, Think we can take him?"  
  
"No."  
  
"So what should we do?"  
  
"I don't know about you but I'm thinking about running and screaming very loudly."  
  
"Good plan." And at that they bolted with Rage in close pursuit of Eddie.  
  
~*~  
  
"So Rini." asked Amy. "Were you able to remember anything?"  
  
Before Rini could answer Eddie burst out in front of them with his thugs banking to separate directions. "Get out of my way!"  
  
"Well that was rude!' said Lita. "What's his hurry?"  
  
Rage then followed with long strides, knocking cars out of its way. "I think we found It." said Mina.  
  
Then Prim and Axel rushed after them. "Come on and find whatever it is your supposed to find!"  
  
Raye looked confused. "These guys are defiantly up to no good, but I didn't sense anything from my last fire reading. How could I have missed it?"  
  
"We'll worry about that later." said Luna "Right now call Serena before that thing gets its next meal!"  
  
~*~  
  
"Perhaps there are things that man was never meant to tamper with!" said the mad scientist on the movie screen.  
  
"Usually it gets really scary after that line." said Darien.  
  
"Darien." said Serena. "I was thinking about us going steady."  
  
Darien smiled back. "Sure, not a problem."  
  
"You aren't just saying that right?"  
  
"Serena, you're the best thing to happen to me in two lifetimes. I couldn't be surer of anything."  
  
They were about to kiss when Serena's wrist communicator broadcast Amy's voice. "Serena, Darien, can you hear me?"  
  
Serena answered it with a hushed voice. "This is a bad time, can I call you back?"  
  
"Serena, a monster has appeared. It's chasing a guy down some alleys. We need your help!"  
  
Serena continued without noticing Eddie come in from a back door. "Ok, where is it now?"  
  
Rage burst through the wall roaring loudly scaring the movie goers and Eddie out. "Never mind, I think we found it."  
  
"Transform as soon as possible, we'll try to catch up."  
  
"Looks like were back on the clock." said Darien.  
  
"It was nice while it lasted."  
  
~*~  
  
Eddie finally tripped in another alley. "Stay back! I'm the toughest guy in school, everyone is afraid of me!"  
  
Rage continued to step forward. "Ok! I lied! I pick on those who are weaker because I'm a coward! Please don't kill me!"  
  
"Even he doesn't deserve this!" Rage turned around and saw Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask behind him. "I stand for justice and love. I am Sailor Moon and on behalf of the Moon I shall punish you!"  
  
Axel and Prim then showed up as Eddie ran away. "Hey, you can't punish our Nightmare!" said Axel.  
  
"Like, it's ours so were the ones who are going to punish it if we want to." said Prim.  
  
"Your Nightmare?" said Sailor Moon. "You mean you're the ones behind all this?"  
  
"Cha." said Axel. "I used the nightmare stone on that kid the other guy was chasing. His anger gave Rage here form so we can..."  
  
Prim gave Axel a punch in the head. "Come on Axel! I don't think we should tell them about Uncle Merlor's evil plot."  
  
"Kid he was chasing after?" Sailor Moon thought. "Then that means this thing is---" She took a closer look at Rage and could almost see Sammy inside him. "Tuxedo Mask, there is a kid inside that thing!"  
  
"What was that?" Sailor Moon heard. She looked to find the other Scouts coming to the rescue.  
  
"Guys we have to find a way to beat him without destroying him!"  
  
Axel looked to Prim. "Now there are seven of them! What should we do?"  
  
"What a minute!' said Prim. "Uncle Merlor said that if we get in trouble to use these ingots!" She threw the red and blue stones on the ground and they changed into crystalline humanlike creatures. The blue ones took a masculine forms while the red ones took Feminine ones. Both kinds had no faces except for a black stone that looked like a compass star that seemed to serve as an eye. "Ok, like, go get them." And the ingots charged the scouts.  
  
Rage went at Sailor Moon with full force. "Hope my new technique works." she thought. "LUNAR CURTAIN PROTECTION!" A yellow barrier materialized between them and blocked Rage's attack. Nearby the other scouts were taking a pounding from the ingots.  
  
"What are these things?" asked Sailor Mercury.  
  
"They're too strong!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"There are too many of them!" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"I can't fight them off!" said Sailor Venus.  
  
Axel and Prim were ecstatic "All right were gonna win!"  
  
""This is better than the time I found a bottle cap that won me a free soda!"  
  
"No!" It can't end like this!" thought Sailor Moon. Just then a pillar of yellow light appeared in the middle of the alley. "What? It's so beautiful."  
  
"We struck pay dirt!" said Axel.  
  
"Wait! The Ingots are blocking our path!" said Prim.  
  
"Sailor Moon, It's calling me!" said Tuxedo Mask.  
  
"Yes! I feel it too! Let's go for it!" at that they dove into the pillar of light.  
  
~*~  
  
Inside the transformation reversed and they were Darien and Serena once again. Two figures were in the light; a man with a circlet crown and a woman with silver hair.  
  
"Queen Serenity," asked Serena. "And my father, King Tycho?"  
  
The two spoke as one. "You have done well to achieve this level, but it also means that you will soon face a great evil as well."  
  
"What great evil?"  
  
"The Silver Crystal you possess has been transformed. Together you shall shine the light of justice to drive the darkness away."  
  
They looked at the crystal and saw it covered in heart shaped broach with a gold moon. It then glowed and out of it came what looked like a ring that had a black stone with a yellow Lunan mark on it; the ring then flew on Darien's finger. "What do we do with them?" asked Serena.  
  
"You will know." And at that they disappeared. Then they knew what to say.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
"MOON REGAL POWER!"  
  
~*~  
  
They appeared back in the alley transformed; Serena as Sailor Moon and Darien now covered in a lightweight, white armor with a cape and visor over his eyes as Moon Knight.  
  
"Ah, guess it wasn't what we were looking for." said Axel.  
  
"Your evil deeds will not go unpunished!" said Moon Knight.  
  
"You now face a new power!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"Big deal!" said Prim. "You changed your broach and he has a new look. We're still going to thrash you! Rage, Ingots attack!"  
  
"You will not succeed!" said Moon Knight as he drew his sword, but he almost immediately dropped it. "This thing is heavier than it looks." After some effort he took down about half of the ingots with one stroke.  
  
"LUNAR SABER CUT!"  
  
"I think I can handle the rest!" said Sailor Mini-Moon.  
  
"MOON GLOWING STARBURST!"  
  
A bunch of small pink orbs of light flew from her hands to the remaining Ingots destroying them.  
  
"Where did you learn that?" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"I don't know I just did." said a astounded Sailor Mini-Moon  
  
Sailor Moon drew out a thin sword. "It's time to end this!"  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
A piercing blue and white light came from the tip of the sword and hit Rage. Sammy was separated from the creature which returned to its original form. The Nightmare Stone spun high into the air and shattered into dust.  
  
"Uh, Prim."  
  
"Yes Axel."  
  
"Do we have anything else?"  
  
"No."  
  
"So, what should we do?"  
  
"Run?"  
  
"Good idea."  
  
Axel and Prim seemed to get taller and thinner until they vanished. "Sammy's ok, he's just unconscious." said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"Where's Sailor Moon?" said Moon Knight. They found her at the end of a ditch created by the attack a few meters away.  
  
"Wow, that packed quite a kick." said Sailor Moon. "Looks like we both need a little practice."  
  
Luna sighed. "This will take some getting used to."  
  
~*~  
  
"Please tell me why you came back empty-handed." said Merlor.  
  
"Ok, it was like this." said Prim. "We were doing ok until this girl, who was wearing this tacky outfit in my opinion..."  
  
"Get to the point!"  
  
"Basically, she and few of her friends kicked our butts." said Axel.  
  
"I gave you one of the most powerful kinds of monster and some of the best warriors available and you were beaten by a bunch of schoolgirls?!"  
  
"Like, did I mention there was a guy with a sword?" said Prim.  
  
"And what did the schoolgirls have? Big flowers?!"  
  
Vega laughed from his throne. "Does something about all this amuse you?!" said Merlor.  
  
"I think they did well for their first confrontation with the Sailor Scouts."  
  
Merlor looked at him with surprise. "You knew about them and you didn't tell me!"  
  
"I wanted to see what the Sailor Scouts were really are made of. The plan will continue with one minor alteration, I will go down as well to see if I can find who they are and what weaknesses they have."  
  
"But my lord will you be alright?"  
  
Vega stepped out of the shadows wearing street clothes. He had sliver hair and blue eyes. "Don't worry. I'll be traveling incognito."  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Looks like the fight has just begun. Stay tuned for future chapters, and review please! 


	3. Amy's Rival

Richforce: Here's chapter three up and running. I do not own Sailor Moon. This chapter has been brought to you by Sausage Boy Pizza. "If you can find a pizza with more sausage, we'll change our name."  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 3 Amy's Rival  
  
"I'm nowhere near ready for this test!" said Serena.  
  
"It's not that big a deal." said Amy. "This isn't going to affect your average; it's just one of those tests that they give you to determine what areas need improvement and which ones are your strong suits."  
  
"But if it says I have to go back a grade; or two?! This could ruin my life forever!"  
  
"Serena, you're overreacting. Just do your best and everything else will fall into place, trust me."  
  
They had caught up with the others when they heard a girl's voice come from behind them. "I've finally caught up with you Amy Anderson!" They turned around to see a girl with brown hair worn in a single long braid running with her school bag and stopping in front of them panting for breath. "You aren't going to lose me this time."  
  
Amy looked confused. "Ok, who are you?"  
  
"You don't remember me?!"  
  
"No, and I'm usually so good with names and faces. I think I remember your face but from where exactly?"  
  
A vein the girl's temple was pulsing. "How could you not remember me?! I'm Lillian Preston, your eternal rival!" she said pointing at Amy.  
  
"Funny, I think I would remember having an eternal rival."  
  
"I'm not surprised." said Serena.  
  
"Yeah, she doesn't exactly have a memorable face." said Lita.  
  
Lillian got mad again. "Will you just shut up and listen?! Ever since I was in kindergarten I worked long and hard to show everyone that I was smarter than most people my age. But you always outshone me! You always had it easy while I worked and sacrificed to get where I am, but nobody ever notices because they are too busy admiring you! Well that's going to change as of today; I'm going to outscore you in the aptitude test; hope you enjoy the shade because from now on you'll be living in my shadow!" She turned around to notice they already left. "Hey! You can't just walk away!"  
  
~*~  
  
Merlor was talking to Axel and Prim in his lab. "I can sum up your mission in two words. Abysmal failure!"  
  
"Like it wasn't totally our fault." said Prim.  
  
"Yeah." said Axel. "How were we supposed to know that this planet had whatever it is they are?"  
  
"Prince Vega called them Sailor Scouts." said Merlor. "But no matter we will continue the search. I have prepared another Nightmare Stone go back to Earth and use it to find the vault."  
  
"So we will get a Nightmare like Rage?" said Axel.  
  
"Unfortunately a Nightmare Stone can't affect the same person twice, so the Nightmare will be as different from Rage as the new victim is from the old."  
  
"And this new one will beat the Sailor Scouts." said Prim.  
  
"Perhaps, but still be wary. They were weak at first, but when those two came from that pillar of light they became vastly stronger."  
  
"Don't sweat it uncle M. Three of them are tough but the rest are total wimpolas. We can take um." said Axel.  
  
"Never underestimate your foes. Prince Vega is down on the planet, probably learning their true identities and weaknesses as we speak."  
  
~*~  
  
"Pencils down." said the teacher. Serena put her pencil down wishing she had more time. "We will have the results in by the day after tomorrow, have a good afternoon."  
  
Serena was packed and ready to leave when the teacher stopped her. "Oh Serena, could you do me a favor and run these tests down to the office?"  
  
"Uh ok, sure no problem."  
  
"Good I want to get to the Kabuki Palace before all the good seats are taken."  
  
Serena was taking the tests to the office when she turned a corner she bumped into someone; the tests went flying to the floor. "Oh I'm so sorry! I should have been watching where I was going!"  
  
"No it was my fault. I'm new here and I'm trying to get a feel for the place." said the young man with silver hair and blue eyes. He bent down to help pick up the tests. "I'm Victor Harp, the new student-teacher."  
  
"I'm Serena Collins, full-time klutz."  
  
"You're probably better than you give yourself credit for."  
  
Serena took a look at her watch. "I'm late again and I still have to turn in these tests to the office!"  
  
"I'll handle that, you go to that appointment."  
  
"Thanks!" Then she left to meet her friends at the shrine.  
  
~*~  
  
"Sorry I'm late again. I had some after-class work thrust on me." said Serena. "If it weren't for Victor I wouldn't be here right now."  
  
The other girls gave her a strange look. "Victor Harp?" said Mina.  
  
"Yeah, so."  
  
"Every girl in school seems to swooning over him," said Lita. "I'd think you'd at least be blushing."  
  
"I have a steady boyfriend and besides I don't see anything special about him."  
  
Mina took out a picture. "I got this from a friend thinking I'd be interested in him. Although, his hair does have a shine to it."  
  
"I like his eyes." said Rini.  
  
"He does have defined cheek bones, gives his face a certain glow." said Amy.  
  
"His eyes." Rini said again.  
  
"He has a cute nose." said Raye.  
  
"His eyes."  
  
"That chin of his is so well shaped." said Lita.  
  
Then they all sighed. "And his eyes."  
  
"Uh, guys. Was there a reason we called this meeting or did you just want to drool over a picture?"  
  
"Yes," said Luna "but I think it's best if Raye told us."  
  
"I talked to Trista and she confirmed what I suspected." said Raye. "The reason I couldn't sense this new threat was because there is a powerful mind blocking us both."  
  
"So Sailor Pluto can't see into the future either?" said Mina. The Trista they were referring to wasn't the one who came from the future, but was a younger one who came to Tokyo from the country about a year ago. She didn't know yet that she would be guardian of time, but since she came she had the ability to see into the near future.  
  
"No, when I tried to make a fire reading this morning I felt this evil presence in the flame trying to keep me from what they are planning."  
  
"A powerful mind." said Amy. "Can't be from those two we fought. They probably couldn't even find water if they were fish."  
  
"Still, they put a good fight," said Lita. "We hardly beat those things. What were they?" Serena shuddered at the thought of those faceless crystalline humans.  
  
Luna answered. "From our sources they are called Ingots. They are the foot soldiers of the Blackstar Empire."  
  
Artemis continued. "All we know about them is that it's lead by an Emperor Dolean and that they have been taking over some planets lately."  
  
"What about the change in the crystal?" Serena asked.  
  
"It seems that energy source was hidden until that monster they called a Nightmare came close to It." said Luna. "It was probably meant to be hidden until you were ready for it, but since you got it ahead of time you weren't able to control it."  
  
"Yes, I remember now," said Rini. "When I first gained this power I couldn't control it at first either."  
  
[Flashback]  
  
Rini had just transformed for the first time she used her starburst attack and was unable to stop using it. "Mommy! I can't stop it! Make it stop! Make it stop!"  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"This means that when Serena and Darien gained the infinity power, history as Rini knew it changed," said Amy. "In the timeline she knew you didn't get this power, but when you did, history changed and she changed with it."  
  
"So you think these Blackstar guys are out to change history?"  
  
"No, they seemed disappointed that what you found wasn't what they were looking for. They're using these Nightmares to look for something, until we know what it is we should keep them from finding anything."  
  
"Ok then be on our guard and try to figure out what they are here to do."  
  
~*~  
  
"You always had it easy didn't you Amy?" Lillian grumbled to herself. She was alone in an isolated corner of the public library; it was getting late. "I worked hard to get where I am. I had to give up so much to get this far. But you just breeze on through, the genius girl that every one loves. Oh, If I could just have a chance to prove myself!"  
  
"Looks like this one will do Axel," said Prim. "Use it now!"  
  
"I got it!" said Axel.  
"NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
Lillian's body was covered by a creature that had a woman's head, a lion's body and the wings of an eagle. "All right what are we going to call this one?"  
  
The Nightmare spoke back to him. "I am Sphinx, and I will aid you in your search for the vault, provided that I am left to my own devices."  
  
The Librarian came into the corner. "No shouting in the Library! I will have to ask you to leave."  
  
Sphinx almost pounced on her. "I will take your energy unless you can answer my riddle." The librarian was paralyzed with fright.  
  
~*~  
  
"What do you think did this to her and the others?" Serena said the next day. She and Amy were looking at the unconscious body of the Librarian; there were three other incidents like it last night.  
  
"The only two witnesses referred to a monster that told them to answer a riddle. If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were dealing with a sphinx." said Amy.  
  
"Looks like someone is a long way from Egypt."  
  
"I thrilled that you're not completely spaced out on geography, but the sphinx I was referring to is Greek. It would ask travelers a riddle and would kill those that couldn't give the correct answer."  
  
"A little harsh, what was the riddle?"  
  
"What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening? The correct answer was a human crawling on all fours as a baby, walking on two legs in their prime and using a cane in old age. But that Sphinx was just myth; it can't possibly be another one doing this."  
  
"Come on, we know three talking cats and my daughter from the future! I don't think we should rule out this sphinx as a mere myth."  
  
"Then we will have to answer the riddle to beat it."  
  
"So we know the answer, we can beat it."  
  
Amy sighed. "All the victims were very learned; at least one of them would know the answer. This sphinx must be using a different riddle."  
  
"So what do we do?"  
  
"We set a trap tonight, and I'll be the bait."  
  
~*~  
  
It was chilly that night. Amy, dressed in street clothes, waited.  
  
"Are you sure this Sphinx will come after you?" Sailor Moon said over the communicator.  
  
"Look at all the victims," said Amy. "They all were considered to have above average intelligence. Because of this not only do I think it will come after me but I think I know the answer to the riddle before even hearing it!"  
  
"Well ready or not her it comes!"  
  
The Sphinx swooped in front of Amy. "You will give me your energy unless you can solve my riddle."  
  
"She's not doing anything you want her to do freak! I stand for justice and love! I am Sailor Moon and on behalf of the Moon, I will punish you!"  
  
"You again?" Sailor Moon turned around to see Axel and Prim. "Don't you have any thing better to do than mess up our fun?" said Axel.  
  
"Yeah that is so rude." said Prim. "Haven't you heard of this thing called a hobby?"  
  
"Getting rid of scum like you is what we do for a living!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"Well in that case say hello to some old friends." said Prim.  
  
She summoned a squad of ingots. "Tear them apart!" said Axel.  
  
"Amy." Sailor Moon thought to herself as she fought. "If Sailor Mercury is going to join this fight she'd better do so soon."  
  
"Answer my riddle or suffer!" roared Sphinx.  
  
"Go ahead." Amy said feigning fear. "I just want to get out of here."  
  
"I have millions of eyes, yet all I see is darkness. I have millions of ears, yet only four lobes. I have no muscles, yet I control two hemispheres. Tell me what can I be?"  
  
"Too easy, the Human Brain!"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"It has millions of optical and auditory nerves, four lobes and two hemispheres. But more than all that, it's the only thing you respect!"  
  
"I was set up!"  
  
"I was helping them bait you into their trap and seeing that all your rock-headed friends are history, I'll be going."  
  
"Not so fast!"  
  
"I but I answered your riddle!"  
  
"And I will let you escape with your energy, but not your life!"  
  
The Sphinx knocked Amy towards the library steps. "No, Amy!" thought Sailor Moon.  
  
Just then a blue pillar of light appeared on top of the steps. "I have to get to it." Amy thought to herself and leapt in.  
  
~*~  
  
Within she saw a woman dressed in icy blue with snow white hair; she had a royal blue locket with the symbol of Mercury in her hands.  
  
"I don't remember you, but I know who you are." said Amy. "My mother; the queen of Mercury."  
  
It makes me proud that you have reached this level and I can give you this locket. Keep it safe from that which would destroy all."  
  
"I understand what to do with this, thank you."  
  
"MERCURY ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
~*~  
  
Sailor Mercury appeared, but it seemed like she couldn't tell where she was going; she was running into walls.  
  
"I'm fine, just having trouble getting my bearings. I don't have it under total control yet."  
  
Axel and Prim looked nervous. "This is not good."  
  
"Just try to stop me!" roared the Sphinx.  
  
"I do more than just try!"  
  
"MERCURY ARTIC SLASHER!"  
  
Blades of ice struck the beast rendering it totally immobilized. "Sailor Moon, it's your turn now."  
  
"Got it!"  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
Lillian was released from Sphinx and the Nightmare Stone was destroyed.  
  
"Look it's that girl from the day before!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"I think her name is Lillian, we should take her home." said Sailor Moon.  
  
~*~  
  
It was in the cafeteria, everyone was discussing the test results. All of Sphinx's victims returned back to normal.  
  
"Two measly little points." said Lillian. "If I got just two more points I would have finally beaten Amy at something!"  
  
Amy came over to her table. "You don't have to prove yourself to anyone. I just do my best in hopes of becoming a doctor. You just have to do your best to fulfill your dreams."  
  
Serena came over to Amy. "How's it going?"  
  
"Just fine. What were your test results?"  
  
"Well, I need a little help in the math/science area."  
  
"Sounds like you all right."  
  
"Well they're having Mr. Harp tutor me on those subjects."  
  
Then just about every girl in earshot crowed around her.  
  
"What? You stink at a couple of subjects and you get the dreamiest guy in school to come to your house?"  
  
"That is completely unfair!"  
  
"I scored low in history and I was just told to try harder!"  
  
Serena tried to calm the girls and her friends down. "Guys I am not interested in him!"  
  
Victor watched from a corner and thought to himself. "But I am interested in you Serena. Very interested."  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Whoa, what is that about? And what's with this vault the bad guys are after? Guess we'll just have to wait, but first ten signed reviewers will get a preview in their E-mail. 


	4. The Sound of Mars

Richforce: Sorry that this update is so late, stuff like trips kept coming up. Anyway I do not own Sailor Moon.  
  
Guy in suit pokes Richforce with a stick.  
  
Richforce: Oh, and this chapter is brought to you by Cheepco battery rechargers. "Cheepco, the only battery recharger capable of recharging its own batteries." Although most battery rechargers just plug into the wall...  
  
Guy in suit hits Richforce with stick.  
  
Richforce: Ouch, that hurt!  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 4: The Sound of Mars  
  
Serena ran down the street as fast as her legs could carry her. "I hope I'm not too late!" she thought to herself as she turned the corner. She stopped horror struck at what she saw next. "No! It just can't be!" In front of her was a poster advertising a concert that would take place the next day with a sold out sticker placed in front of it. "If only I had set my alarm last night, I could have had two tickets for the concert of the year!"  
  
"No, you wouldn't." said Lita from behind her. "Mina and I came at the crack of dawn to find a line three blocks long."  
  
"Yeah, Alvin Dean and the Notes are the hottest tickets since the Starlights." said Mina. "There isn't a spare ticket left, even the scalpers went home."  
  
"But I had it all planned!" whined Serena. "I would take Darien to the concert and then he would walk me home!"  
  
"Let's just go to Raye's." said Mina. "Amy said she may have figured out something that could help us."  
  
~*~  
  
"Merlor your plan so far has been, less than fruitful." said Vega. He improved the lighting around his throne so you could see his black armor- like clothes and sliver cape, but most of his face was still shadowed.  
  
"My lord, it's not entirely my fault." said Merlor. "I knew that finding the vault would take some time, but still you have to allow some leeway." He gestured to Prim and Axel across the room. "Look what I have to work with for Pete's sake!"  
  
"Like we do our best." said Prim.  
  
"Yeah," said Axel. "I don't even see what the big deal with this vault is anyway."  
  
"The Vault of Astra is a very big deal!" said Merlor. "The energies contained within the vault exceed any other known power in the entire universe! The Blackstar Empire must secure it first!"  
  
{Yes.} thought Vega. {And with it I will bring back our home and find you again, my little star.}  
  
Merlor turned to Prim and Axel. "Go back down, but from now on you will use the Nightmare Stone on a human I will designate." He conjured an image of a guy with sunglasses and long blonde hair. "This is your target, now get to work!"  
  
"Can we get something to eat while were gone?" said Prim.  
  
"Ok, but keep your mind on the job!"  
  
~*~  
  
"If there was a locket for me that boosted my power," said Amy as she looked at the locket she gained. "Then logically others must exist for the rest of you."  
  
Raye spoke up. "So we have to go look for them."  
  
"Unfortunately, even my computer can't detect where they are hidden. It seems our only way to find them is to get lucky while fighting a Nightmare."  
  
"Which we need Astral power to fight." said Mina.  
  
"Not a good situation for those who don't have It." said Lita.  
  
"But that's just half your problem." said Artemis. "Remember, those powers were meant to be given to you when you were considered to be ready for them. Serena and Amy were both unable to control it because they weren't ready for it."  
  
"Well both Amy and I have been practicing," said Serena. "And I can now say I have total control; most of the time."  
  
"Most?" said Luna. "If one of those few times happens during a real battle the results could be disastrous!"  
  
"I'm doing my best!"  
  
Just then they heard the sound of a car horn coming from the front of the shrine. Raye led the way to see what was going on; they found a stretch limo parked in front; a young man with long blonde hair wearing sunglasses stepped out of the back.  
  
"I can't believe it's him!" said Mina.  
  
"Alvin Dean, here?!" said Lita.  
  
"Maybe, I'll get those tickets after all!" squealed Serena.  
  
Alvin looked to Raye. "Can I find a Chad Bandon here?"  
  
"Yes, I'll go get him."  
  
She brought back Chad who recently started cutting back the hair that came over his eyes. "Alvin; what is a superstar like you doing here?"  
  
"Hey Chad; almost didn't recognize you without the bangs, I can see those blue eyes now. I was in town for a concert and I decided to look up the guy I used to jam with in my garage."  
  
Raye looked at Chad with a surprised expression on her face. "You know a celebrity like him?!"  
  
"It was before I came here; we both had dreams of becoming big rock stars."  
  
"And thanks to you, my dream came true." said Alvin.  
  
"What?"  
  
"That song you wrote for me; Love in a high-speed world; my first smash hit."  
  
"Really; my song?"  
  
"Yeah, that's why I'm here. I was thinking of letting you be one of my songwriters. Travel the world with me, fame, fortune; you know the whole deal."  
  
"Well I..."  
  
"Of course you don't have to answer right away. I have a press conference soon, so I'll be back here this afternoon; later."  
  
He hoped into his limo and rode away.  
  
"I guess I have some thinking to do." said Chad.  
  
"You are so lucky Chad." said Amy.  
  
"I'm happy for you." said Raye but then she thought to herself {So why don't I feel happy?} she was starting to have feelings for the guy she first thought was just rich airhead when they first met on that day that seemed so long ago.  
  
~*~  
  
Prim and Axel were trying to sneak into the stadium where the concert was taking place; when a pair of bouncers caught them. "May we see your passes?"  
  
"Passes?" said Prim. "Like; we are top reporters here to interview Alvin Dean."  
  
"So why aren't you at the press conference across town?"  
  
Axel took a different approach. "Now I'm sure we can come to some sort of mutual agreement." He said as he stuffed some bills into the bouncer's shirt pocket.  
  
The bouncers picked them up, took them out of the stadium and tossed them into a dumpster. "Nice toss; they landed with the rest of the trash."  
  
The other bouncer took the bills out of his shirt pocket. "Oh, and thanks for the free money!"  
  
"This is like; so not my day. All I really wanted was a cheeseburger." fumed Prim.  
  
~*~  
  
Raye looked for her grandfather and found him in front of the sacred fire. He threw some leaves into it and started chanting. She watched and after a few minutes he sighed.  
  
"Something wrong Grandpa?"  
  
"You sensed it too didn't you; the malevolent presence within the flame; the one that even now blocks our visions."  
  
"Yes I did."  
  
"I tried every purifying charm and ritual I know and still it remains. Until we find out what it is and how to purify the flame it is not safe to read it."  
  
"Grandpa there is something else I wanted to talk to you about."  
  
"About The offer that musician made to Chad?"  
  
"How did you..."  
  
"When you get to be my age you tend to know about what's on your family's mind. That and he told me about it."  
  
"I'm afraid he'll leave us."  
  
"A man must make his own choices; if he chooses to go we must be happy for him."  
  
"But I feel that he; he'll just leave me, like mom and dad did."  
  
He sighed again. "They went to Rwanda to help people in need of food and medicine. The government was unstable at the time so they thought it wasn't safe for you there; that's why they left you with me. I didn't want my son and daughter-in-law to go, but they were grownup and had to make their own choices. Leaving their little girl here was probably the most difficult thing they had to do. If you really care about Chad you will let him make his own choice."  
  
Raye gave her Grandfather a kiss. "Thank you Grandpa, I'll go tell him." And she started to go out.  
  
"Raye," her grandfather said. She turned back. "I know your parents will come back one day." After she left he clutched his chest and then took some pills.  
  
~*~  
  
Alvin's limo pulled up as the sun started to set Serena, Luna and Rini were all there as Raye and Chad walked up to him.  
  
"So made up you mind?" said Alvin.  
  
"Yeah, you see..."  
  
"Not so fast there superstar!" said Axel.  
  
They all turned to find Prim and Axel standing on top of the gate.  
  
"Ok," said Alvin. "Who are you," then he pinched his nose closed "and why do you smell like garbage?"  
  
"We're just a couple of fans; in fact my brother here has a gift for you."  
  
"NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
In Alvin's place appeared a creature with pointed ears, amplifiers on his shoulders and an evil looking guitar. White makeup covered his whole body. "Hello Tokyo! Madhallen is here to rock your world!" he struck a chord on his guitar and sound waves knocked everyone to the ground.  
  
"Let's get you out of here!" said Chad as he pulled Raye along.  
  
Serena and Rini hid in order to transform. "Ready?" said Serena.  
  
"Yes, let's get that bully!" said Rini.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
"MOON FAIRY POWER!"  
  
"Prim!" said Axel. "Keep an eye out for any energy sources!"  
  
"You can stop right now!" said Sailor Moon. "We fight for justice and love! I am Sailor Moon!"  
  
"And I am Sailor Mini-Moon!"  
  
Then they said together. "And on behalf of the Moon, we will punish you!"  
  
"Like, don't you get tired of saying the same thing over and over again!?" said Prim. "It really gets annoying!"  
  
"If you think that's annoying, try this!" said Sailor Mini-Moon.  
  
"MOON GLOWING STARBURST!"  
  
The attack hit Madhallen knocking him back but then he just laughed.  
  
"I don't get it!" said Sailor Mini-Moon. "It worked great last time!"  
  
"That's because a Nightmare is a lot stronger than an Ingot." said Axel.  
  
"But if you miss them..."said Prim as she threw ingots on the ground which then changed into their warrior forms."  
  
"Hey Madhallen how about joining in?" asked Axel.  
  
"Sure." answered the Nightmare. "Just give me a second to turn the volume from five to six!" He turned a dial on his guitar and struck another chord unleashing an even bigger attack.  
  
"Now would be a good time for Sailor Mars to show up." Sailor Moon thought to herself.  
  
~*~  
  
Chad led Raye to meadow on the temple grounds near a dry well. "You stay here and I'll get your grandfather."  
  
"Ok, be careful."  
  
After Chad left a red pillar of light came from the well. "I feel it calling to me; I have to go in there." She jumped into the well without a second thought.  
  
Inside the pillar was a woman in a red gown with red hair the color of fire, she held a red locket with the symbol of Mars. "You must be the queen of Mars; my past mother."  
  
"My daughter, I'm filled with pride to give you this locket. I know you will use it well and keep it safe from that which would destroy all. I am always watching over you."  
  
"Yes, I can feel it." Raye said as she took the locket. "Thank you."  
  
"MARS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
~*~  
  
Sailor Moon saw a giant pillar of fire come from a meadow in nearby. Sailor Mars jumped out of it fire spreading all around her.  
  
"Sailor Mars, I'm glad you're here!" said Sailor Mini-Moon.  
  
Sailor Mars didn't say anything but came closer to Madhallen. "Ingots attack her!" they charged only to be consumed by the flames. The other two scouts were almost burned up as well.  
  
"I thought we were on the same side!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"She can't control the astral power; it's making her obsessed with her target!" said Luna.  
  
"Like, I don't want to get split-ends!" said Prim.  
  
"Forget split-ends were going to be a bucket of extra crispies in a few seconds! Sorry Madhallen, but your on your own!"  
  
Madhallen got angry after they teleported away. "Who needs you? I'll just crank the volume up to twelve, that's maximum power!"  
  
He turned the dial all the way to the end all played his guitar like crazy; but a wall of flame came up and blocked the attack. "No way, nothing can stop my sound attack, it's unbeatable!"  
  
Sailor Mars began to gain control of her power. "Obviously not, I'm won't let you defile this sacred place anymore!"  
  
"MARS WARFIRE INCINERATE!"  
  
She was surrounded by flames that took the shape of a Kitsune (a Japanese demon fox with seven or more tails.) A fireball came from its mouth and met with seven more that came form the tips of its tails; they formed into a fiery fox head that hit Madhallen snapping the chord that connected his guitar to his shoulder amps. "No, not my music, you killed my music!"  
  
"It's time to send you back to the bottom of the charts!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
Madhallen screamed as he was being separated from Alvin Dean. "Thank you, good night!" The Nightmare changed back into a Nightmare stone and shattered into dust.  
  
Sailor Mars looked to her friends. "I'm sorry; I couldn't control my new power and it almost got you seriously hurt."  
  
"Don't worry," said Sailor Mini-Moon. "You need practice that's all."  
  
"I'll try to get control of this power and I'll never hurt my friends with it again."  
  
~*~  
  
Meanwhile back at Vega's star fortress...  
  
"I can see that your relatives are mostly at fault for our recent failures." said Vega. "If you wish I will send for more capable assistants for you Merlor."  
  
"I wish I could my lord." said Merlor. "But I promised their mother; my younger sister; on her deathbed that I would make them at least halfway decent servants of the empire. Sadly only an iota of progress has been made." He turned to Axel and Prim. "We will discuss your cowardice later!"  
  
Axel started to protest. "But Uncle Merlor; she was going to..."  
  
"I said later!" he took a good whiff of the two who fell into a dumpster just hours earlier and then held his nose. "First, I want the both of you to each take a shower! You reek of refuse!"  
  
~*~  
  
The next day Alvin Dean came back to the shrine about two hours before the big concert. Serena went to see what Chad's decision was. Raye looked like she was going to cry.  
  
"After yesterday's fiasco I gave you some more time to think, but I need your answer now. You want to join my group as a songwriter?"  
  
"I'm really flattered but I'm going to stay here." Chad replied.  
  
Raye gasped. Alvin seemed confused. "Are you sure? I mean making it big in the rock and roll world was your dream."  
  
"It was my dream," He looked to Raye's grandfather who was at the shrine doorway. "But I think I found my calling."  
  
"You know, that takes a lot of guts." said Alvin. "Well being old friends and all the least I can do is give you and your girlfriend there front row seats."  
  
As Alvin gave them the tickets Serena stepped forward. "While you're giving away tickets I need two for a big date tonight and..."  
  
"Sorry those were my last two, I'm so big a seller that I could barely get front row to my own concert." Alvin said as he walked away.  
  
"Raye, you weren't planning on going to the concert. I need those tickets please!"  
  
"I don't know, after all this I think Chad owes me a treat." said Raye. "And besides don't you have a math test in the morning?"  
  
Serena panicked. "Oh no, I completely spaced out!" She ran home knowing that Luna would probably be waiting with remarks on her study habits.  
  
Raye then thought to herself. {I will get control.}  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Looks like those Astral powers are doing more harm than good. I'll try to get the next chapter up faster. Please review everyone! 


	5. His Sister's Keeper

Richforce: Well here is #5 in the Vega Saga. I do not own Sailor Moon.  
  
Guy in suit: Hr hem!  
  
Richforce: Oh and this chapter is brought to you buy Bits o Pig "Home of the Hamsteak!" What is a Hamsteak anyway?  
  
Guy in suit: Sorry, I'm not allowed to reveal your sponsor's secret recipe.  
  
Richforce: Oh, in that case let's get on with the show.  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 5: His Sister's Keeper  
  
The Girls were going to enjoy their "ladies first" night that they planed for two weeks. As far as their parents and the cats knew it was just going to be a little sleepover at a friend's house, but in reality it was going to be a night to celebrate their femininity. They all were hanging out at Lita's apartment. "Amy," said Serena. "Having our ladies first night here proves you're a genius. As long as we don't disturb Lita's neighbors we can do almost anything we want."  
  
"Well, the fairer sex has to self-indulge every so often." said Amy. "And after what those two bozos have been putting us through lately, we deserve every bit of it."  
  
Raye came into the living room, arms loaded with junk food that she put down on the table. "I agree; we have no school tomorrow so we stay up late and pig out!"  
  
Mina put down a pile of videos. "And for your viewing pleasure, all chick flicks with no car chases, machine guns or explosions!"  
  
Serena than opened a bag and got out some cosmetics. "I have every thing we need for makeovers! Tonight it's anything we want to do with no rules, no homework, and no curfews!"  
  
Lita then came in from the bedroom. "And no support at all!" she said as she removed her support from underneath her clothes.  
  
"Alright!" said Raye.  
  
"Let's do it!" said Mina.  
  
"Well, tonight anything goes!" said Serena.  
  
Amy hesitated as the other three took their supports off. "I don't know about this."  
  
"Come on." said Mina. "We get to go wild tonight!"  
  
"No one else is going to come. Get loose." said Serena.  
  
"Yeah, it feels comfortable." said Lita.  
  
"We won't tell anybody. Take it off!" said Raye.  
  
"Ok! You convinced me!" said Amy as she off and felt her chest hanging underneath her shirt. "You're right!" she said as she and her friends gave their chests a few bounces. "This is comfortable!"  
  
"Alright let's get started!" everyone else said.  
  
Just then the doorbell rang. "Don't worry I'll take care of this!" said Lita. She steeped up to the door and answered the ringer without opening the door. "Sorry, but tonight were not opening the door for cranky neighbors, love struck boyfriends, overprotective cats or little kids!"  
  
A gruff voice answered. "What about long missing relations?"  
  
Lita suddenly opened the door without a second thought. Behind it stood a tall muscular young man with spiky brown hair wearing a green and white jersey with the number one on it, she jumped into his arms. "Rex!"  
  
"How you doing little squirt!?" he said before suddenly feeling something bounce on his chest. "Guess you're not a little squirt anymore." He said with a blush.  
  
The girls all turned beat red. "Um, Rex can you give us a few minutes to get decent?" said Lita.  
  
"Sure, I've got some more bags in the car anyway." And so ladies first night ended with embarrassment.  
  
~*~  
  
Axel and Prim walked groggily to Merlor's lab. "What do you think does Uncle Merlor want this late at night?" said Prim. She was in her nightgown wearing a cream facemask and curlers in her hair.  
  
"Don't know." said Axel who was only wearing his boxer shorts with gears on them. "Whatever it is it better be something we can do fast so we can get back to sleep.  
  
An otherworldly glow came from the doorway to the lab. They heard Merlor talking to someone. "Hey, isn't Prince Vega out tonight?" said Axel.  
  
"Quiet!" whispered Prim. "I'm trying to listen."  
  
"Yes I understand." said Merlor. "Thank you for your patience."  
  
The glow faded away just before Axel and Prim entered the room. The glow in Merlor's eyes was gone replaced by stern blue eyes that complimented his crimson robe and priest-like hat well. "Who were you talking to Uncle Merlor?" said Prim.  
  
"Never mind that!" said Merlor.  
  
"Uh, your eyes aren't glowing." said Axel. "Don't they need to for you to block the sixth senses that could find out what we're up to?"  
  
"It's being taken care of, I can't tell you how just yet. Here is your new target!" He conjured an image of the young man who just entered Lita's apartment.  
  
"Like wow!" said Prim. "He is a total hunk! He makes me sad that we have to make him a Nightmare."  
  
"You can swoon over him after you find the vault!" said Merlor. "Now go!"  
  
"Sure, first thing in the morning!" said Axel.  
  
"No, go right..." Merlor said before he stopped. "Oh why not, you'll just fall asleep on the job if you go now."  
  
~*~  
  
Back at the Apartment the girls were more than a little miffed at Lita.  
  
"I thought we all agreed that we would not let any one else in while we were having our ladies first night!" said Serena.  
  
"Care to explain why you let that guy in without question?" said Amy.  
  
The young man came back with a pair of suitcases. "Rex, why didn't you call me?" said Lita.  
  
"Sorry, I wanted it to be a surprise." said Rex.  
  
"Well, we were all surprised." said Mina.  
  
"Care to introduce me to your friends?" said Rex.  
  
"Oh sorry. This is Serena Collins, Raye Hino, Amy Anderson, and Mina Oliver." said Lita as she pointed to each of her friends.  
  
"I'm Rex Logan."  
  
"Logan?" said Raye. "Then that makes you Lita's..."  
  
"Older brother."  
  
"Lita, why didn't you tell us you had a brother!?" said Mina.  
  
"Well there just never seemed to be a reason to tell. Rex took care of me after our parents died in that plane crash. I had to practically threaten him to accept that Stanford scholarship."  
  
"So you've been in college in America?" Amy asked Rex.  
  
"Yes, and I have to say it's good that Lita made some more friends while I was gone."  
  
"You should thank Serena." said Lita. "All of us were alone until she came into our lives."  
  
"Well I wasn't doing too much better until I met you guys." said Serena.  
  
"So Rex what are doing back here?" said Lita.  
  
"I graduated and found a job."  
  
"Really, what is it?"  
  
"I want to tell you in private. You girls don't mind do you?"  
  
"I don't see why not." said Serena.  
  
It was quiet when the two went into Lita's bedroom to talk. After a few minutes the rest of the girls heard shouting, a few minutes later Rex stomped out.  
  
"Well I have to go find a hotel room now. Sorry for ruining your evening ladies." Rex said before he left.  
  
Lita then stepped out yelling at Rex. "Well you can stay there for all I care! I don't need you treating me like a little kid!"  
  
After Rex closed the door Serena turned to Lita. "What was that all about?"  
  
"Sorry." said Lita. "I need some time by myself. We can have our party some other time."  
  
The other girls left concerned about their friend.  
  
~*~  
  
The next day Serena was walking to the park for a date with Darien. She thought it was more than coincidence that he chose the same spot that Rini first came from the future three years ago as the meeting site. On the way she managed to spot Lita by herself at an outdoor café. "Darien can wait a little bit longer; I have to find out what's going on." She thought.  
  
"Lita, fancy running into you here!" Serena said.  
  
"If you're trying to cheer me up you can forget it." said Lita.  
  
"Anything wrong?" said a voice from behind them, Serena turned around.  
  
"Victor! What are you doing here?"  
  
"Same as you I guess. Is your friend having a problem?"  
  
"Not if you don't consider completely alienating the brother who practically raised you a problem." said Lita.  
  
"What were you arguing about last night anyway?" asked Serena.  
  
"He had several job offers but chose one here so he can move back in with Me." said Lita. "I thought he was trying to run my life again just when I got it together by myself. I told him he was a control freak who couldn't let me live my own life. He said that I didn't grow up and I didn't have any respect for how he felt. Then one thing just led to another and..."  
  
"Lita, I think he came back because he missed you and wanted to see you again." said Serena. "Guys like him aren't the type to ware their hearts on their sleeves. He should have told you that he came back just to see you again, but you should not have jumped to conclusions like that."  
  
"He should have listened to you and you should have listened to him." said Victor.  
  
Lita looked at him half-heartedly. "Well when I was a kid if he wanted me to listen to him, he would pin me to a wall and pour grape soda on my head." Her expression then changed to a more serious one. "But you're both right I should find him so we can both really talk about this."  
  
"That's the spirit!" said Serena. "I have to go find Darien, see you later."  
  
Victor turned to Serena. "I have other pressing concerns at the moment so I'll see you after school tomorrow."  
  
Then the three left the café.  
  
~*~  
  
Serena came up to Darien. "You wanted to see me?"  
  
"Yes." said Darien. "It's about your locket and my new ring. I think I know part of the reason you got stronger from it."  
  
"What did you find out?"  
  
"This ring combined the power I gained from the Earth with the energy of the silver crystal."  
  
"Combined?"  
  
"I'm sharing your power and you're sharing mine. I noticed that we both got better at using them at the same time. Now more than ever our destinies are linked."  
  
"And you're also afraid that this will some how affect Rini."  
  
"You read me like an open book; her power also increased because of something that didn't happen in the history that she knew. I'm afraid that because of this and also because of the Blackstar Empire, when she goes home it won't be to the one she knew."  
  
"I'm more afraid that she may not exist at all."  
  
"That won't happen."  
  
"How can you be sure?"  
  
"She is; or will be; a product of our love for each other. And nothing can make me stop loving you."  
  
"Or vice-versa."  
  
As the two made a deep passionate kiss, Victor watched from behind a tree. {You always did love him with all your heart, my little star.} Vega thought to himself.  
  
~*~  
  
Lita went to the Park's baseball field to find Rex there hitting balls launched from a pitching machine. "I figured I'd find you here." She said. "You wanted to let off some steam by hitting something and these balls would make a better choice than some guy on the street."  
  
"I thought you didn't want to talk to Me." said Rex.  
  
"Well I probably blew the whole thing out of proportion."  
  
"And I came on too strong." Rex said as the last ball was fired.  
  
"I want to talk; about you coming back, about what I've been doing and about Mom and Dad."  
  
"Sure squirt, can I buy you something to drink?"  
  
"Anything but grape soda."  
  
"I think we both grew out of that pouring grape soda on your head thing."  
  
The two started to walk away when they heard a voice from on top off the batters cage. "Um, Excuse me. Mr. Muscles?"  
  
They turned around to find Prim and Axel. "Who are these clowns?" Rex asked Lita.  
  
"Bad News. Just stay away from them."  
  
Prim continued. "I was wondering if you could be my boyfriend."  
  
"Sorry lady." Rex said. "But I don't date jokers like you!"  
  
Tears started to form in Prim's eyes, Axel looked furious. "Hey you can't talk to my sister like that!"  
  
"Well my sis says you two are trouble, I'm out of here!"  
  
"If you want trouble keep walking!" Axel then pulled out what seemed to be a knife. "Then your sis will have a new nostril!"  
  
Lita recognized that it wasn't a knife blade but the end of a Nightmare stone. "Rex, don't!"  
  
Rex cracked his knuckles. "That's it!" he then rushed toward Axel. "It's butt-kicking time!!" Rex didn't lose control of his anger often, but when he did someone always got creamed. He had no idea what was in store for him.  
  
"NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
Rex became surrounded by the form of a creature that wore a baseball uniform. Its face was covered by a catcher's mask; the only thing that could be seen underneath was a pair of blood red eyes. It carried a baseball bat that had spikes around the end. "Now batting for the Blackstar Empire, Strikezone!" the Nightmare bellowed.  
  
"Rex!!" screamed Lita. She then turned to Prim and Axel. "How could you do this to my brother?! To anyone?!"  
  
"Hey, it's our job!" said Axel.  
  
"And it eases the pain of a broken heart." Prim sobbed.  
  
Darien and Serena came just in time to see the whole thing.  
  
"They need our help!" said Serena.  
  
"Right!" said Darien.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
"MOON REGAL POWER!"  
  
After they transformed they came up with a plan. "Sailor Moon; I'll go in and get Lita out of there; you call the others."  
  
"Got it!"  
  
Lita tried to talk to Strikezone. "Rex it's me, Lita! You don't want to do this!"  
  
The Nightmare just laughed. "Sorry, but your brother is just my battery. You're talking to the wrong guy!"  
  
Strikezone took a swing a Lita. "LUNAR SABER CUT!" Moon Knight blocked the bat with his sword.  
  
"Lita, get out of here! Go get help!" said Moon Knight.  
  
Lita realized that "Go get help" meant that she should transform into Sailor Jupiter where the bad guys couldn't see her. "Ok, please help him!"  
  
Sailor Moon arrived with the other scouts. "You're not getting away with this evil deed! I stand for justice and love!"  
  
"And I stand for honor and truth!" said Moon Knight.  
  
Then together they said "And on behalf of the Moon, we shall punish you!"  
  
"Don't you ever take a day off?!" Axel said angrily.  
  
"Love, how can you understand the crime that guy did against my heart!?" sobbed Prim.  
  
Axel turned to her angrily. "You barely knew him!"  
  
Strikezone got their attention. "Hey, how do you expect me to play these guys without my own team?"  
  
Prim threw her Ingots. "Take these and make them feel the pain I feel!"  
  
The Ingots took warrior form and charged. Sailors Mercury and Mars managed to break through. "Take this!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"MERCURY ARTIC SLASHER!"  
  
"MARS WARFIRE INCINERATE!"  
  
As the two attacks approached Strikezone he swung his bat and deflected the attacks toward the sky. "Ha! You can't touch me, I'm batting a thousand!"  
  
It didn't look like the fight would end any time soon.  
  
~*~  
  
Lita decided that a nearby grove was the best place to transform. When she got there a green pillar of light seemed to rise up from the ground. "Yes." Lita said to herself. "If I want to save Rex, That's going to be the best way to do it."  
  
She walked into the pillar of light and found a woman in an emerald green dress with hair as black as a thundercloud. She held an emerald green locket with the symbol of Jupiter on it. "The Queen of Jupiter, my mother from the Silver Millennium." Lita said bewildered.  
  
The Queen spoke. "Though it pains me that a time has come where giving this locket to you is necessary, it also fills with pride that you are ready to accept it. Keep it safe from that which would destroy all."  
  
"Thanks. I never got to know my modern mother very well, but I would like to think that she was a lot like you. I have to go but I'll never forget you."  
  
"JUPITER ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
~*~  
  
Axel noticed the pillar of light but realized what it was. "Prim, I don't like this."  
  
Prim was beginning to calm down. "Even if one of them has gotten stronger; Strikezone can deflect her attack."  
  
Sailor Jupiter arrived. "You Negapunks are going to pay for this!"  
  
She charged Axel and Prim who narrowly escaped. But then she seemed to turn on her friends barely missing before attacking the Ingots then the batting machine. "What's going on?" said Sailor Mini-Moon. "One minute she's attacking us then next she's fighting sports equipment!"  
  
"She can't control it!" said Sailor Mercury. "She's attacking targets at random!"  
  
"Hey you!" Strikezone called to Sailor Jupiter. "You couldn't hit the broad side of Russia!"  
  
Sailor Jupiter seemed to gain control. "I not gonna miss this time!"  
  
She formed a ball of electricity about the width of her body.  
  
"JUPITER LIGHTNINGORB BLITZ!"  
  
She launched her orb at StrikeZone who hit it with his bat. "See you couldn't hit me!"  
  
"Who said I trying to hit you?"  
  
The Attack broke the end of his bat to pieces. "No! That was my lucky bat!"  
  
"Well your luck has run out!" said Sailor Moon. "You're going to hit the benches, permanently!"  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
Strikezone screamed as Rex was separated from him and after he reverted back to a Nightmare stone he was dusted.  
  
Prim started to cry again. "Oh no, Strikezone struck out!"  
  
"Looks like its back to the minors for us!" said Axel. Then the two Teleported away as Sailors Mars and Jupiter chased after them.  
  
"They got away again!" said Sailor Jupiter. "But I'm more worried about my brother."  
  
Sailor Venus comforted her. "He'll be up in half an hour; you better change back before he does!"  
  
~*~  
  
"How do you feel?" asked Lita to Rex who has starting to wake up.  
  
"Like the entire European soccer league has been using my head for kicking practice. What happened anyway?"  
  
"The Sailor Scouts showed up and dealt with those guys." It was true after all.  
  
"Those girls on TV? I thought they just part of some sort of publicity stunt."  
  
"Rex if you want to move back in; I'd love to have you."  
  
"I don't want to be a pest."  
  
"You won't be."  
  
"Alright, oh and about that party I ruined last night. I suppose I could be away for one night on business."  
  
Serena, Amy, Raye and Mina all were excited their friend was feeling better and they were going to have a real ladies first night. {The party's back on.} Serena thought to herself. {Lita made up with her brother, and Darien and I are working together on a whole new level; things are defiantly getting better!}  
  
~*~  
  
Prim and Axel nervously stood outside Merlor's lab. He told them not to come in until he called them, which would most likely be after he finished talking with whatever was causing the glow.  
  
"No, Vega still doesn't suspect your existence let alone the fact that we're working together. "Merlor said.  
  
A long pause then Merlor spoke again. "Yes, we will find the vault and then both of our desires will be fulfilled."  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Who or what is this thing that Merlor's talking to? And why do I have a feeling that things instead of getting better are going from bad to worse? Keep reading to find out and as always review! 


	6. Love is a Magic Act

Richforce: First I'd like to thank my reviewers so far at fanfiction.net Thanks to: Royko876 MIchelle Yami-Flavor And my brother Jawmax I do not own Sailor Moon. This chapter is brought to you by Bill's House of Toxins. "Your source for do it yourself pest control!"  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 6: Love Is a Magic Act  
  
Mina walked slowly to the Crown Arcade. {Wonder what Serena wants?} she thought to herself. {Maybe it's about how I haven't been that useful without an astral locket. I mean ever since this Blackstar mess started I've only been able to beat a single Ingot. Just one pathetic crystal robot!}  
  
She stepped in front of the Arcade and saw Andrew talking to Rita. "At least Andrew's doing fine since Rita came back from that dig; she's a great girl for him, too bad I don't have someone right now."  
  
"Hey Mina; over here!" Serena yelled from the door.  
  
Mina stepped into the building with Serena. "What do you want?"  
  
"Just to have some fun!" Serena said. "Any game you want to play?"  
  
"How about that new dance game?"  
  
"You're on!"  
  
They stepped on the machine and each inserted a coin. "Yo! Yo! Yo!" the machine said as it played some upbeat music. "Move your feet as you dance to the beat!" Arrows scrolled up the screen as the two tried to step on floor pads that matched when the arrows got to a certain point. Mina was doing well but Serena tripped a few times.  
  
"Mina can you do me a favor?" Serena asked while they were still playing.  
  
"What kind of favor?"  
  
"Rini has been invited to the birthday party of one the girls she goes to school with. I have to stay home for a math session with Victor and Darien has to go to a tenets meeting in his building so I thought you could take her."  
  
"Why can't your parents or Sammy take her? After all they're her family too."  
  
"My Parents both have to go to work and the girl having the party is Eddie's kid sister."  
  
Mina sighed. "I thought he gave up after what happened last time."  
  
"Well he didn't; in fact yesterday he stuffed Sammy and Mika in a closet and wouldn't let them out until they kissed on the lips."  
  
"Not exactly how I would want my first kiss."  
  
"So will you do it?"  
  
"Sure, not like I had any plans."  
  
"Good! The party's tomorrow at three, Rini knows where it is."  
  
"Time's up!" the machine said. It then tallied their scores. On Mina's side it said. "You are a monarch of moves!" Serena's wasn't as good. "I've seen better steps on a ladder!"  
  
"Hey! I wasn't that bad!" said Serena.  
  
"Yes, you were." said Mina before she left for home.  
  
~*~  
  
Merlor, Prim and Axel stood before Vega's throne. "Four times you fought against them and four times you failed; should I expect a fifth?" said Vega.  
  
"My lord." said Merlor. "I admit that we have met with setbacks, but this time my plan is foolproof!" he looked to Prim and Axel. "Especially from these two fools!"  
  
"Explain."  
  
"In our previous attempts we only focused on humans that may have had some connection with the vault, with no success. This time I studied exactly what kind of nightmare may come with the purpose of defeating the sailor scouts!"  
  
"Are you sure it will work; or do I have to call the Black Vanguard?"  
  
Merlor looked nervous. "That's completely unnecessary!"  
  
Prim and Axel looked confused. "Who's the Black Vanguard?" asked Prim.  
  
"They are the Blackstar Empire's most elite fighting force." said Vega. "Four warriors; each one powerful enough to take a planet by his or herself; they should get the job done."  
  
"But my lord that's overkill; it's like lighting a match with a flamethrower!"  
  
"Cool!" said Axel.  
  
"Quiet!" snapped Merlor. "Here is your victim!" his image showed a college aged girl with red hair. "She performs magic tricks, so the resulting Nightmare will be a powerful magician!"  
  
"I don't like magicians." said Prim. "Like they ask you to pick a card and when you do you put it back; they shuffle the deck show you the card and ask 'Is this your card?' And you go 'Yes, how did you know?' and they never tell you!"  
  
"Stop wasting time and go!" said Merlor.  
  
"Consider us out like disco!" said Axel.  
  
~*~  
  
"Thanks again for taking us to Julie's party." Rini said to Mina.  
  
"Yes, this is going to be fun!" said Diana.  
  
"Remember be on your best behavior," said Mina then she looked to Diana. "And no talking from little kittens."  
  
They went into Julie's house when Mina bumped into an unexpected face.  
  
"Jamie, is that you?" Mina asked. The last time she saw the boy who was on her volleyball team she had just restored his pure heart after it was stolen by one of the witches five.  
  
"Mina, what are you doing here?" Jamie asked back.  
  
"Taking a friend's cousin to a party, and you?"  
  
"Everyone may I have your attention!" Julie's mom shouted. "We have a special guest who would like to perform. So please give a warm welcome to Mandy the Magnificent!"  
  
Mina had a glum expression on her face. "Oh, you're helping your girlfriend with her magic act."  
  
"No." said Jamie. "Just my big sister, your friend Serena asked her to do her act here.  
  
"Really?" said Mina. {I'm going to have a talk with her.} She then thought.  
  
The little kids sat down as a red haired girl stepped out wearing a glittering suit and top hat. "Thank you! First I shall perform the classic rabbit out of the hat trick!"  
  
She took off the hat and a bunny rabbit was sitting on her head, the kids giggled and Eddie snickered.  
  
"As you can see the hat is empty." said Mandy.  
  
"Like your brain!" Eddie yelled.  
  
Mandy ignored him. "I shall say the magic words and pull a live bunny out of an empty hat! Abracadabra, Rabbit appear!" she reached into her hat and frantically searched. "It was here just a minute ago!"  
  
"Here it is Sis." said Jamie as he grabbed the rabbit.  
  
Mandy turned to the audience going with what was happening. "Ladies and Gentlemen; my little brother Jamie! Thank him for helping me perform the new rabbit off of my head trick!"  
  
The kids clapped as Eddie was led out off the room by his mother. "For my next trick I will need a volunteer form the audience!" Several little hands shot up. "How about...you with the gray kitten!"  
  
Rini ran up to Mandy. "Now I need you to pick a card, but don't show it to me." Rini took a card from Mandy's hand. "Now memorize it and put it back." Rini did as instructed. Mandy shuffled the deck and drew a card. "Your card is the Queen of Hearts!"  
  
"How did you know?" asked Rini.  
  
"Sorry, but a magician never reveals her secrets."  
  
"Um, Jamie." said Mina. "If you ever want to talk here is my phone number." She gave him a piece of paper.  
  
"Thanks, I'll keep it in mind." said Jamie. He knew Mina was really Sailor Venus, but he never told anyone including her. He wanted to pursue a relationship with her before but when he found out who she was he thought she had enough to worry about and he would just get in the way. But now he saw a new side to her; a lonely girl who needed someone for her to be there for him and for him to be there for her. He thought that maybe she needed him to pursue that relationship. He then turned his attention back to his sister and her act.  
  
"For this next trick, I'll have to ask for assistance from the birthday girl!"  
  
~*~  
  
"What do mean I set you up?" said Serena. They were having a meeting at the shrine when Mina came by with an angry look on her face.  
  
"Oh come on!" Mina yelled back. "I broke up with Andrew, I feel a little lonely, you ask me to take Rini to a party where the older sister of a guy I had passing feelings for was performing; on your request I might add; and you want me to think its just coincidence?"  
  
"Stranger things have happened." said Amy.  
  
"I agree with Mina." said Lita. "Serena was playing matchmaker for the matchmaker."  
  
"I thought we were trying to find out what the Blackstar Empire wanted here." said Luna.  
  
"Forget it." said Raye. "We probably couldn't figure it out anyway."  
  
"Ok." Serena admitted. "I was trying to get your mind off of the fact you're the only one who doesn't have an astral locket."  
  
"Listen, I don't need any help!" said Mina. "When I find it; I find it and I can get a date without a certain meatball head sticking her nose in other peoples business!"  
  
"Don't bite my head off! I was just looking out for the team's best interest!"  
  
"You're not my father! Don't butt in for anyone's business; including my own!" Mina then left.  
  
"Not her father?" Serena asked as she turned to Artemis.  
  
"I knew it would come out sooner or later." Artemis sighed.  
  
"What is it about her dad? Something about him seems to make her angry." asked Amy.  
  
"When she was a little girl in England she lived with both of her parents and the three of them were almost inseparable. Then there was a riot, her mother; being a paramedic; was called to help treat injured people, there was some gunfire and she was killed. After that Mina's father was never quite the same, he buried himself in his work and made quite a few sacrifices on time with Mina for the company. In fact the reason we were able to come here was because her father was made the head of the company's Japanese branch."  
  
"Poor girl." said Luna. "She spends so much time looking for a boyfriend because her father doesn't show her the love he still has for her. If only he'd show her that love, maybe she wouldn't be so desperate."  
  
"I just hope she lands on her feet." Serena mused.  
  
~*~  
  
Mina was reclining on top of her bed that evening hold a picture of her mother. "There was a magician at the party, like at the last birthday party I had before you left." She said to the picture. "I really wish you were here Mum. Artemis keeps me company and I have my friends, but I still feel so lonely. Dad is always working and I can't seem to find that someone special."  
  
"Maybe you should focus on what you have instead of what you don't." Artemis said from behind her.  
  
"Thanks Artemis, but I still miss my mum; guess I always will."  
  
The door opened and Mina's father came in. "There is a phone call for you." He said with a British accent.  
  
"OK Dad."  
  
"Don't be long, I expecting an important call."  
  
"Thinking about work as always." thought Mina as she picked up the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Mina, it's me Jamie."  
  
Mina had forgotten that she gave him her phone number. "I wasn't expecting you to call so soon."  
  
"Are you free tomorrow night? There is this exclusive show at the Shooting Star Theater; I've been invited and I was thinking about taking you with me."  
  
"Sure! I'll get my homework done in class so I'll be able to go."  
  
"What about your folks?"  
  
"My dad will probably let me go so long as I come back home on time."  
  
"And your mom?"  
  
"She died when I was still little."  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be it was a long time ago. What time should I be there?"  
  
"Half-past five, see you then!" Jamie hung up.  
  
Mina started to get ready for bed. "Artemis may be right." She thought to herself. "But still if a friend asks for company you shouldn't refuse."  
  
"Off the phone?" Mina's father asked.  
  
"Yes, dad."  
  
"Another boyfriend?"  
  
"An old one actually, we're getting back together."  
  
"Keep your mind on your studies; and set a realistic goal for yourself." He then closed the door.  
  
{Dad.} she thought to herself. {I will find true love, and I will fulfill my dream.} Mina's father didn't like her personal goals because of the high competition in the entertainment and modeling field, but then as a vice-president of an insurance firm he didn't like risks in general. He also disapproved of the Sailor scouts and Sailor V before them. {If he found out my secret he'd blow his top.} Mina thought before she went to sleep.  
  
~*~  
  
The next day Serena and the others noticed a big improvement in Mina's mood. "Somebody put something in her drink." said Raye.  
  
"Mina, are you feeling well?" said Amy.  
  
"Lately you have been a walking bad mood." said Lita. "What happened?"  
  
Mina talked to them while still walking. "For your information, Jamie called last night and I'm going to an exclusive performance."  
  
"See, I knew he would do you some good." said Serena.  
  
"Well unless you got him the tickets, I don't see much of reason to thank you."  
  
"Mina."  
  
"But thanks anyway, for getting us together."  
  
~*~  
  
Mandy was preparing for her big act. Magic had always been her favorite hobby but felt even better about using her tricks to help out her little brother. "Let's see after I make the flowers appear I give them to Jamie who gives them to his girlfriend. Is there anything I forgot?"  
  
"Just that my brother and I are behind you." said Prim.  
  
"NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
~*~  
  
Mina meet Jamie in the lobby but found a surprise in the theater. "Where is everybody?"  
  
"Mina when I said it was exclusive I meant just the two of us." said Jamie. "Come on the show's about to start."  
  
"I knew it!" Serena said to herself from her hiding spot in the balcony. "He's definitely in love with her!"  
  
The room went black and spotlights were moving across the stage. "Funny." said Jamie. "I didn't think Mandy could get a couple of spotlight operators."  
  
Axel's voice came from the spotlight room. "Lady and Gentleman prepare be amazed at the incredible feats performed by the Nightmare of magic, Alakatastrophe!"  
  
The spotlights focused on a Nightmare that wore a magician's outfit that sparkled red, she held a magic wand that had a black compass star on the end. "Hello my guests." Alakatastrophe said. "I hope you enjoy this spectacle, it'll be your last!"  
  
Serena used her communicator. "Guys, I'm at the theater."  
  
Raye's voice came from the other end. "You creep! You're spying on Mina's date!"  
  
"Never mind that, the loser twins are crashing the show and made Jamie's sister a Nightmare!"  
  
"We're on our way!" said Lita. "You better get going!"  
  
"Right!"  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
Mina tried to get Jamie to an exit, but Alakatastrophe used her wand to close and lock all the doors! "I promised you a spectacle to die for! You're not leaving until the shows over!"  
  
"Now what do we do?" said Mina.  
  
"You have to change!" said Jamie.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"The show is over, for you!" said Sailor Moon as Jamie and Mina took cover backstage. "I stand for..."  
  
"Like, don't bother." said Prim. She pulled out a tape recorder and hit the play button.  
  
"I stand for justice and love!" said the recording. "I am Sailor Moon and on behalf of the moon, I will punish you!" Prim then hit the stop button.  
  
"You recorded my entrance phrase?!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"Cha." said Axel. "We thought this way we could just get down to business."  
  
The other scouts including Sailor Mini-Moon came in through a skylight. "I got her!" Sailor Mini-Moon said as she charged with Diana clinging on her shoulder.  
  
"And for my first trick." said Alakatastrophe. She threw a handkerchief at her attackers that grew until it covered them completely. Alakatastrophe then removed the now tablecloth sized handkerchief and Diana and Sailor Mini-Moon had vanished. "Taa-Daa!"  
  
"Where is she?!" demanded Sailor Moon.  
  
"They're just floating around in dimensional limbo."  
  
Sailor Mercury used her computer to analyze her opponent. "I've seen your attack and now I know that your left wrist is your weak point!"  
  
"MERCURY ARTIC SLASHER!"  
  
Alakatastrophe quickly dodged. "Don't you know? A good magician never does the same trick twice!" she then used her wand to trap Sailor Mercury in a box and suddenly a saw blade cut her in half!  
  
"The left wrist huh?" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"Let's hit it together!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
Alakatastrophe then used her wand again. "And now the human puzzle box!" Sailors Mars and Jupiter were trapped in a box with moving panels. The panels stopped the box opened to show that their heads, legs and torsos were on shelves and in all the wrong places!  
  
"I've had enough!" said Sailor Moon she pulled out her sword and charged.  
  
"I've saved the best trick for you." Alakatastrophe used her wand again trapping Sailor Moon in case made of steel on all sides except for a glass one. She was hung upside down in a straightjacket and the case was filled with water.  
  
"The infamous Chinese Water Torture Chamber!" said Alakatastrophe. "The Great Houdini was able to escape it in less than three minutes! Dare we ask the same for Sailor Moon?"  
  
"I hope I can." Sailor Moon thought. "I can't hold my breath for longer than that."  
  
~*~  
  
Mina was talking to Jamie backstage. "What did you mean when you said I had to change?"  
  
Jamie was silent for a short while. "I...know you are Sailor Venus."  
  
"Me, Sailor Venus? You're wrong! I..."  
  
"I saw you transform soon after I was attacked after we first meet. I didn't tell you because I thought you had enough to worry about and you didn't need me messing it all up."  
  
"So what changed your mind?"  
  
"At the party I saw how lonely you were and I felt that you needed a friend. My feelings have never changed since that day, but maybe I was wrong."  
  
"No, you are right. I have been feeling really lonely, I felt like there was this hole in my heart but tonight it seems that it's filled up a little.  
  
An orange pillar of light appeared. "What is that?" said Jamie.  
  
"Something I have to do." said Mina. "Run out the back and promise me that you won't tell any one else."  
  
"I promise come back in one piece and free my sister ok?"  
  
"You bet!" Jamie ran out and Mina walked into the pillar.  
  
Inside a woman with yellow eyes wearing an orange gown was holding an orange locket with the symbol of Venus on it. "I guess you must be the queen of Venus and my mother from the past."  
  
"My young barer of the light, as I know you keep love in your heart I know you will keep this locket from that which would destroy all."  
  
"Thank you, I'll never forget you...Mum."  
  
"VENUS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
~*~  
  
On stage Sailor Moon struggled to get free of the Chinese Water Torture Chamber. {If only I can get free!} She thought. Just then Sailor Venus back from back stage with a big grin on her face. {She found it! Now those jerks are in real trouble!}  
  
"Looks like I have a volunteer!" said Alakatastrophe. "You won't live through this spell!" she fired a several blasts from her wand, but Sailor Venus just pranced away completely oblivious to what was going on around her.  
  
"Hold still!" shouted Alakatastrophe.  
  
"Looks like she can't control it either." said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"She looks really pathetic." said Sailor Mars.  
  
"At least she isn't trying to kill her friends." said Sailor Mercury. Sweat drops appeared on Sailor Mars' and Sailor Jupiter's heads.  
  
Sailor Venus bumped into the torture camber knocking it over, freeing Sailor Moon while knocking herself back to her senses. "What was I doing?"  
  
"Acting like a dipstick." coughed Sailor Moon.  
  
"That's it!' said Alakatastrophe. "I'm going to make you disappear forever!"  
  
Sailor Venus held her right wrist and made a palm pointing her finger tips at Alakatastrophe. "I'll use the light to end your evil spells!"  
  
"VENUS LUMINESCENT PURGE!"  
  
A sharp stream of light came from sailor Venus' hand hitting Alakatastrophe at her left wrist breaking her wand and ending all of her spells. Sailor Mini-Moon and Diana both popped out of thin air and landed on their rears. "Ouch! What happened?"  
  
"And now for the grand finale!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
"No! All my lovely magic!" Alakatastrophe screamed as she was separated from Mandy, turned back to a Nightmare Stone and then was dusted.  
  
"And now for you two!" said Sailor Mars to Prim and Axel who were looking nervous.  
  
"Wait!" said Prim. "We have an escape trick!"  
  
"Yeah." said Axel. "Watch us disappear!" The two then teleported back to the Star Fortress.  
  
"Why should those two always get away!" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"Forget them!" said Sailor Venus. We all got our astral lockets!"  
  
"The Blackstar Empire better watch out, because now we are a real force to be reckoned with!" They all said together.  
  
~*~  
  
Merlor brought Prim and Axel before Vega. "Your continual failures are starting to annoy me Merlor." said Vega.  
  
"My lord, I admit that I have failed you, but we don't need to call the Black Vanguard, at least not yet."  
  
"Too late, I already dispatched for one of them. She is on her way as we speak; you have until she arrives to find the vault or I'll turn over control of this mission to her!"  
  
"Perhaps I should consult my ally." Merlor thought.  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: A new enemy is coming! Can the scouts' new astral powers defeat a member of the Black Vanguard? Stay tuned and review this chapter! 


	7. The Mystery of the Eight Astral

Richforce: Sorry for the delay, another fiction sidetracked me, I've been updating previous chapters and I had some papers to do for College. If you're wondering about the outer scouts they will all make an appearance in this chapter. I'm basing this on the dub with some knowledge of the Japanese original, so let's get some things straight now.  
  
Sailor Uranus and Neptune; like in the dub; will be cousins (If you have problem with that feel free to flame me. I'm not ignorant or prejudiced about the relationship they had in the original, I just prefer this one.) Also Saturn's father is alive and well.  
  
Scout elements will be as follows based on my reasoning of the dub.  
  
Moon=heart  
  
Mercury=ice  
  
Mars=fire  
  
Jupiter=thunder  
  
Venus=light  
  
Pluto=wind  
  
Uranus=stone  
  
Neptune=water  
  
Saturn=darkness  
  
I do not own Sailor Moon. This chapter has been brought to you by Ninjacise "Fight fat with the power of the ninja!"  
  
Chapter 7: The Mystery of the Eight Astral  
  
[Dream sequence]  
  
Princess Serena looked about four years old though she was really ten times older; she was bouncing a ball in the palace garden when she heard a voice.  
  
"The Servers are the eight astral."  
  
"What that?" said the Princess to the young ninety old boy in fine clothes with sliver hair.  
  
"It's something I was told to never forget." He answered. "The Servers are the eight Astral; Astral is power to be enriched by the heart. Ultimate power comes from the Controller; the Controller is the one that unifies the Astral."  
  
"What all that mean?"  
  
"I still don't know. But the number eight; is the same as the number of astral powers there are."  
  
"The little princess stared at the boy with a confused look on her face.  
  
[End dream sequence]  
  
"Serena, Serena wake up now!" Luna said. "Ok! Let's try another way." She then jumped on the sleeping Serena and started to lick her face.  
  
"Hey cut that out! That tickles!" Serena laughed.  
  
"Well I had to get you up somehow!"  
  
"I had a dream, it was in the Moon Kingdom, I was just a little kid..."  
  
"Maybe some of your memories from back then are resurfacing! Can you recall anything about it in particular?"  
  
"That's funny, now I can't remember anything about it."  
  
"We'll work on it later. Right now don't you have a test today?"  
  
Serena smiled; this was one test she actually looked forward to since she was a little girl.  
  
Amy, Raye, Lita and Mina were waiting by a chain link fence. "I can't believe I actually failed a test!" said Amy.  
  
"You're not alone." said Lita.  
  
"We all failed the driver's exam." said Raye.  
  
"The worst part is that Lillian is shoving the fact that she passed in my face." said Amy.  
  
"Hey, I'd be driving for a year now if I was back in England." said Mina. (In Japan you have to be at least 18 to drive, 17 in England.)  
  
"We all know what the real problem is." said Lita.  
  
"That instructor is impossible to please!" they all said.  
  
Serena came by. "Hey Serena, how'd it go?"  
  
Serena held up her new license. "What do you think!?"  
  
The others stared in disbelief. "You passed!"  
  
"Yes! I can't actually believe I did it on my first try!"  
  
"I can't believe the rest of us failed!" said Raye.  
  
"Even Amy?"  
  
"We only failed because we had Miss Agamoto for an instructor." said Amy. The scouts cringed at the thought of the woman with horn-rimmed glasses and a bun in hair.  
  
"That's who I had." said Serena. "She said she was very pleased with me."  
  
"She hated everything we did!" yelled Lita.  
  
"So you guys each had a fender bender, you can try again; while I'm cruising down the highway with Darien!"  
  
"Now she's rubbing it in!" moaned Mina as she took Serena's license. "Look even her picture looks good and the ones on peoples' drivers license never do!"  
  
Serena took her license back with a vein in her head pounding. "Listen, you guys are just jealous that for once in my life I was good at something while the rest of you stank at it!" Serena then stormed off.  
  
Prim and Axel came into Merlor's lab. "You called us Uncle Merlor?" asked Axel.  
  
"Yes. Because Vega has called for a member of the Black Vanguard, I believe the time has come for me to tell you the true purpose of your mission." said Merlor.  
  
"Like, you mean we aren't supposed to find the vault?" asked Prim.  
  
"We are, but not for the reason Vega thinks." Merlor's eyes started to glow again and then he started chanting. "I call forth the goddess of power! The bringer of fear! The destroyer of worlds! I call forth the infinite Astra!"  
  
A giant flame appeared that seemed to keep changing colors. In the flame a woman's eyes and mouth could be seen. The face started to speak. "Why have you called me Merlor? And who are these two?"  
  
"This is freaking me out!" said Axel.  
  
"What is that thing?" asked Prim.  
  
"You will call her the great and infinite Astra!" bellowed Merlor. "And you will give her the respect she more than deserves!" He then turned toward the flame. "Great Astra forgive my relatives' shortcomings; Vega has called for a member of the Black Vanguard, he may suspect something!"  
  
"Worry not; my power is enough to block his perceptions as well as those of your enemies." said Astra.  
  
"Wait a minute." said Prim. "Astra, so the vault belongs to you?"  
  
"This vault is my prison! I will give all of you the power you desire, in exchange for my freedom!"  
  
"Whoa!" said Axel. "Like don't worry Great Astra, we'll find it!"  
  
"Yes and I have just the nightmare to do it!" said Merlor. His image was that of Miss Agamoto. "Now we have had some recent failures but we will succeed! Can you wait for a little longer Great Astra?"  
  
"I have been waiting for five millennia; I can wait longer, but not too much longer!" Astra said before disappearing. When she did the glow in Merlor's eyes vanished.  
  
Serena came home and found a surprise waiting for her. "No, they didn't!" she rubbed eyes at looked at the new car in driveway. "They did!" her family came out and gave her a big hug.  
  
"Congratulations Serena!" her dad Richard said.  
  
"We're so proud of you!" said her mom Irene.  
  
"Way to go sis!" said Sammy.  
  
"Thank you, it's exactly how I'd imagined it'd look like." squealed Serena. She looked at the little white car. "Can I..."  
  
"Go give it a test drive!" said Irene.  
  
"Just be home before seven, we want you to master daytime driving before doing anything at night." said Richard.  
  
"Thank you, thank you, and thank you times one-hundred times over!!"  
  
Serena took Luna in the car and Serena drove around for a while. "I feel so alive!"  
  
"It's a hunk of metal." Luna sighed.  
  
"This 'hunk of metal' means freedom and the beginning of my future!"  
  
"The beginning of your future?"  
  
"Right now I'm driving, in a little while I'll graduate and then move out of my parent's house and finally get Darien to marry me!"  
  
"You are showing signs of becoming a full adult and I'm proud of you. Just remember not to let any of it go to your head."  
  
Serena then changed the subject. "Open the glove box."  
  
"You didn't listen to a word I said did you?"  
  
"Come on open it."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"To put something in of course, I want to use everything this baby has to offer!"  
  
Luna did so. "Hey, there's something in here."  
  
"What?"  
  
"A letter, 'Go to the top of the downtown parking complex.' That's all it says."  
  
"Ok, let's go! I'll turn on the radio and get us there in style!"  
  
"I'm sorry." said Miss Agamoto. "But you have to take the exam again."  
  
"But I only nicked a cone!" said a young man.  
  
"No, I have listed five violations. Study up and have a good day." The young man walked away. Miss Agamoto heard a cough behind her. "May I help you?"  
  
"NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
Miss Agamoto's nightmare was a blue traffic cop look alike that had traffic lights on her chest. "I am Speedtrap." It said. "I would like to find some people to terrorize!"  
  
"Well you're in luck." said Prim. "Here come some girls to toy with!" The scouts were coming to retake the exam.  
  
Serena parked her new car on top the complex and started to look for whoever sent the letter. "Hello anybody here?!" Serena asked.  
  
"I knew you'd find the letter." said Amara as she stepped out of the shadows. "I tried everything out on my first car."  
  
"I'm glad you came at such short notice." said Michelle.  
  
"We have something very important to discuss." said Trista.  
  
"And it concerns the rest of you too." said a young woman the same age as the outer scouts who just stepped out of the shadows. She had black hair and purple eyes.  
  
"Who are you?" asked Serena.  
  
"I knew you wouldn't recognize me, even though I'm still Sailor Saturn."  
  
"Hotaru?! But you should be twelve!" Hotaru mysteriously returned to her original age during the Sailor Wars but this sudden maturity was a mystery.  
  
"How I became this way is part of the reason we called you here." All of the Outer scouts held up a locket with their planet symbols and colors.  
  
"Astral lockets?" said Luna. "But how..."  
  
"We found each of these while fighting monsters sent by a couple of boneheads." said Amara.  
  
"So you've met Prim and Axel." said Serena. "Wait you, didn't destroy the youmas they used did you?!"  
  
"Yes." said Michelle. "But at the same time freed the people they captured."  
  
"Are you able to control your powers?"  
  
"We weren't at first." said Hotaru. "Amara was stranded on a rock spire, Michelle's attack made her extremely dizzy, my power almost tore me apart and Trista couldn't even get her attack to work." Amara gave an angry glance at Hotaru. "But now we got it under control."  
  
"I'm more concerned with something our past mothers told us." said Trista. "Keep them safe from that which would destroy all."  
  
"The mothers of the Inner Scouts talked about the same thing. I wonder what they meant." said Serena.  
  
"The same time this locket made me an adult I've felt this dark presence watching at me, but I can't determine what it wants." said Hotaru.  
  
"Wait, I remember something I got in a dream last night."  
  
"I thought you couldn't remember anything about that dream." said Luna.  
  
"It just came back to me. I was playing in a garden and there was this older boy; he seemed familiar. There was something he wasn't to ever forget. 'The Servers are the Eight Astral; Astral is power to be enriched by the heart. Ultimate power comes through the Controller; the Controller is the one that unifies the Astral.'"  
  
"And what does that mean?" asked Michelle.  
  
"Even the boy in the dream didn't know."  
  
"Does this have something to do with none of us being able to sense anything?" said Amara.  
  
"Maybe." said Trista. "Ever since I found out recently that I'm supposed to be the guardian of time I've accepted it as my fate but now that I can't use the gate to see the future I've been cautious about what's in store for us."  
  
"We better be cautious. From what I can tell about this force it's blocking the powers of physics all over the world." said Hotaru.  
  
"If it's that serious, that means we should team up!" said Serena.  
  
"I wouldn't go that far yet." said Amara.  
  
"Come on we're stronger as a group!"  
  
"But are you willing to make the sacrifices to save the earth?" asked Michelle.  
  
"I don't think anyone was to be sacrificed!" Serena said then her watch beeped.  
  
"Serena, it's me Rini. A Nightmare's attacking a driving school. The other scouts are here but they're acting strange."  
  
"I'll be there with the Outer Scouts. I'll explain when I get there." Serena turned back to the Outer Scouts "Care to come?"  
  
"Might as well." said Trista. "Looks like your friends really need our help."  
  
"Why not?" said Amara. "I'm up for thrashing a Nightmare."  
  
"If Amara's going than I am too." said Michele. "After all cousins have to stick together."  
  
"I'm in." said Hotaru.  
  
"But if you use your power, you'll be..."Serena said.  
  
"I appreciate your concern but my astral power now allows me to tap into shadow energies to attack; my sacrifice move will only be a last resort."  
  
"Then let's go!"  
  
"URANUS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"NEPTUNE ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"SATURN ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"PLUTO ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
At the driving school Prim and Axel were looking for the vault. "Are you sure it's even here?" asked Axel.  
  
"Would you want to take the chance that it isn't?" said Prim.  
  
"Well were not letting you find anything!" said Sailor Moon. "I stand for justice and love! I..."  
  
"We all heard your stupid speech a million times." said Axel. "Why don't we just skip it?"  
  
"If that's the way you want It." said a Sailor Pluto. The outer scouts appeared.  
  
"Oh no, not you too!" said Prim.  
  
"Must just be your bad luck." said Sailor Uranus.  
  
"You might as well give up!" said Sailor Neptune.  
  
"Speedtrap!" yelled Axel.  
  
The Nightmare came when called. "Ah, more scouts to brainwash with my traffic lights."  
  
Sailor Saturn got angry. "What did you do to Sailor Mini-Moon?!"  
  
"I can bring all your friends out if you want." She snapped her fingers and Sailor Mini-Moon came out with Amy, Raye, Lita, and Mina. They were all flapping their arms, Serena's friends squawking like chickens while Sailor Mini-Moon cheeped like a little chick. "Right now they think that they're poultry because of my lights, you better hope it doesn't rain or they'll drown looking up into the clouds with their mouths open!"  
  
"You not getting away with this creep!" said Sailor Moon. "In case you haven't noticed we outnumber you!"  
  
"I can fix that!" said Prim as she threw out some Ingots.  
  
"Funny, she never did that before." said Sailor Uranus.  
  
"This could be bad." said Sailor Neptune.  
  
"They aren't that tough." said Sailor Moon. "They're just a lot of them."  
  
Victor watched from the shadows. {Now let's see what the scouts of the outer solar system can do.} thought Vega.  
  
"Attack!!" yelled Axel.  
  
The Ingots charged the scouts who fought back.  
  
"She's right." said Sailor Pluto. "They're persistent but they're also weak."  
  
"They even make me look strong physically." said Sailor Saturn.  
  
"We're losing again!" yelled Prim.  
  
"Speedtrap get your butt in there!" yelled Axel.  
  
"You girls are going to get more than ticket for this!" shouted Speedtrap.  
  
"Let's take these jewelry store rejects out!" said Sailor Uranus.  
  
"I'm right with you!" said Sailor Neptune.  
  
"URANUS TECTONIC UPHEAVAL!"  
  
"NEPTUNE OCEANIC MAELSTROM!"  
  
Uranus stabbed her sword into the ground and rock spikes popped up impaling the Ingots. Neptune held her mirror up as she spun around; water came from the mirror creating a giant whirlpool whose currents broke apart any ingots caught up in it.  
  
Speedtrap was knocked back by the attacks. "Is that the best you got?!" she said. "Well try my signal beam!" She sent red, yellow and green beams from her chest as she blasted Sailors Neptune and Uranus. Sailor Moon blocked the attack.  
  
"LUNAR CURTAIN PROTECTION!"  
  
"We'll take it from here." said Sailor Pluto.  
  
"She's not getting away with hurting my friend!" said Sailor Saturn.  
  
"PLUTO FURIOUS CYCLONE!"  
  
"SATURN SHADOW STRIKE!"  
  
Pluto spun her staff in circle forming a disc of wind that seemed to cut Speedtrap. The blade of Saturn's glaive gave a black glow and shot out shadow copies of the blade at Speedtrap. Speedtrap's lights shattered and she collapsed.  
  
"Uh oh," said Prim. "I don't think this will end well."  
  
"Maybe we should have gotten insurance." said Axel.  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
Miss Agamoto was separated from Speedtrap and as her nightmare stone was shattered Prim and Axel were blasted far off by the attack. "Ahhhhhhhh! OW!" the two said after they landed and a cloud of smoke came up.  
  
The other scouts stopped acting like chickens and looked around. "What happened?" asked Raye.  
  
"The last thing that I remember we were going to retake our drivers exam." said Lita.  
  
"Then we saw this Nightmare and then I blacked out." said Mina.  
  
"Strange, suddenly I have a craving for chicken." said Amy.  
  
Rini looked at the outer scouts and went up to them. "Hotaru, you grew up so fast."  
  
"Yes, I'm sorry you have to see me this way, but something tells me this is the way things are meant to be."  
  
"I feel that too now, but no matter how much either of us grows up we'll always be friends."  
  
Serena talked to her friends. "I'm sorry for acting like such a big jerk earlier."  
  
"Well, I'm sorry I got jealous." said Lita.  
  
"Me too." said Raye.  
  
"Double for me." said Amy.  
  
"Triple." said Mina.  
  
"Well now we can all fight together." said Serena.  
  
"Sorry but we have to pass." said Amara.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"We have our separate ways. I don't think it would work." said Michelle.  
  
"But we worked well today."  
  
"I have to agree with them on this one." said Hotaru. "Our goals are the same but our methods are just too different."  
  
"Something tells me it wasn't always this way. I can tell that at one point, none of you would have been willing to sacrifice anyone but yourself if needed."  
  
"That was a long time ago." said Trista. "We changed and all of you probably will too, someday." And the Outer scouts left at that.  
  
"Rini, do you think they could go back to the way they used to be?"  
  
"I hope so, for all their sakes but especially for Hotaru."  
  
"You used Nightmare stones without my permission?!" yelled Merlor.  
  
"What makes you say that Uncle Merlor?" asked Prim innocently.  
  
"Those other scouts had to get that kind of power somewhere and a Nightmare is the only way I can see how!"  
  
"It's not a big deal." said Axel.  
  
Merlor zapped them with a dark energy as Prim and Axel yelled in pain. "Nightmare stones are not toys! Now we only have two left until the next shipment comes in!"  
  
Vega had teleported back to his throne from the Earth. "You can stop abusing your relations Merlor."  
  
"Prince Vega I didn't expect you back so soon."  
  
"Merlor, I want you to read my mind and display what I'm thinking.  
  
Merlor did as he was told. Images of the scouts in their civilian forms came up. "Amy Anderson, Raye Hino, Lita Logan, Mina Oliver, Amara Stone, Michelle Peterson, Trista O' Conner, Hotaru Tomoe, Darien Shields, Sarini Collins and Serena Collins."  
  
"Those are the scout's true identities. We will use them when the time is right and that is when the Black Vanguard member gets here."  
  
Meanwhile somewhere across space the Black Vanguard member flew to Earth in her starship. {This is going to be fun.} She thought to herself as she smiled wickedly.  
  
The Inner and Outer scouts better watch their backs with the Blackstar Empire knowing their true identities and a member of the Black Vanguard gunning for them. Review please, my Email address is RichforceAdelphia.net. 


	8. Good Knight Sweet Prince

Richforce: As I said new allies will show up in this chapter as well as a friend of an old enemy. I won't go into too much detail now, but the pairings are the most likely ones that I have seen. I don't own Sailor Moon. This chapter has been brought to you by Discount Christmas Lights. "We have more lights than Las Vegas!"  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 8: Good Knight Sweet Prince  
  
Serena raced to the shrine after school; she still couldn't believe the gossip she overheard. "There could be only one reason they would do that." She got there before anyone else. Luna was pleasantly surprised.  
  
"Serena you're early for once!"  
  
"Yes just in time, if I'm right the other scouts have been replaced by evil clones!"  
  
"What?!" both Luna and Artemis said the same time.  
  
"Here they come now! You can tell just by the way they walk!"  
  
Serena's friends did seem to have glum looks on their faces and their pace was slower than usual. "Maybe they just had a bad day." said Artemis.  
  
"Or you could be jumping to conclusions; I swear you read too many comic books!" said Luna.  
  
Serena started making accusations. "O.K. where have you taken the real guys!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" said Amy.  
  
"I'm talking about how you dropped boyfriends that you all recently had like a bad habit!"  
  
"That's why you think they're evil clones?!" said Luna.  
  
"Serena, gossip shouldn't be your primary way of getting reliable information." said Artemis.  
  
"Serena we have to talk about something very important." said Raye.  
  
They sat Serena down. "We did a lot of thinking and we realized that we're not just some silly teenage girls anymore, we're practically adults and we should start acting like It." said Lita.  
  
"Pardon me, but how is dumping your boyfriends the adult thing to do?" said Serena.  
  
"Amy talked about it with Greg and I talked about it with Jamie." said Mina. "The lives we lead are just too dangerous, they could get hurt because of us and it wouldn't be right to put them in danger like that."  
  
Serena was shocked. "So that's it; after looking so hard for love you're all just going to give up!"  
  
"This wasn't easy for us." said Amy. "But it wouldn't be fair to Greg, Chad, Ken or Jamie and besides our duty must come first."  
  
"Now you're starting to sound like the outer scouts!"  
  
"Maybe they have the right idea." said Raye. "The only reasons we're not encouraging the same thing with you and Darien is because he can protect himself and because of Rini. But if push comes to shove and there really was no other way would we be able to make a sacrifice?"  
  
"Nobody has to be sacrificed!"  
  
"Just listen to yourself for a minute, do you realize how naive you sound? We can't afford attachments anymore, the stakes are too high." said Lita.  
  
"It would be selfish for us to put them in danger just to fill a longing in our hearts." said Mina.  
  
"Selfish?! It would be selfish to just drop them, and without giving two of them a reason!" said Serena. "If being an adult does to me what it seems to have done every other scout than I wish I could just go back to being a little kid and stay that way forever!"  
  
"I think it would be a good idea to end this meeting." said Raye. "I hope you realize this is for the best Serena; for them and for us."  
  
As Serena left an image came to her mind. She was in the Future as Neo- Queen Serenity happily dancing with her beloved Neo-King Endymion at a ball. But when she glanced away from his eyes for a few brief moments she saw her friends looking at her from the edges of the room each one of them guarding her from her own loneliness. And despite appearances saying otherwise she could tell that their hearts were broken beyond repair long ago. {Please don't let this be a vision of how the future really is going to be like for them.} she thought.  
  
~*~  
  
"Prim! Axel!" Merlor bellowed. He came into a recreation room and saw the two of them playing with a board game they brought back from Earth.  
  
"O.K." said Prim holding up a card. "The category is 'Myths and Legends'. Like, 'What was the name of the Norse god of thunder?'"  
  
"Um, wait I know this one!" said Axel. "Let me guess it's... wait, I forgot my guess."  
  
"State your surrender."  
  
"Alright, it's all..."  
  
"With the mask of tragedy."  
  
Axel picked up a sad looking Greek theater mask on a stick and held it in front of his face. "It's all Greek to me."  
  
"Yes! It's Thor! Move back one space!"  
  
"But you can't move back from start!" Axel said pointing to the start space where both of their game pieces still were.  
  
Merlor stormed up while the still unaware Axel read another card. "The question in the category 'History Mystery' is 'Who is the dictator considered by many to be the most evil man of the twentieth century?'"  
  
"Um, the answer is..."  
  
"Right behind you." said Merlor.  
  
"The answer is 'Right behind you!'"  
  
"No." said Axel. "The card says answer is 'Adolph Hitler.'"  
  
Merlor zapped them. "You're supposed to be looking for the vault; not playing some stupid game!"  
  
"'It's All Greek to Me' isn't just a game, its well, a really good game." said Axel.  
  
"Need I remind you that a member of the Black Vanguard will be here any day now and if you don't find Astra's vault by then you're as good as space dust!"  
  
"Alright Uncle Merlor." said Prim. Like what's the plan?"  
  
"We only have two Nightmare Stones to use until she gets here. We have to make them count so I have found the perfect victim." Merlor conjured an image of an average looking guy. "Don't let his appearance fool you; his nightmare can probably crush the scout's heads like grapes. Go down there and try not to screw up for once."  
  
"Don't worry we'll do It." said Axel.  
  
"Good."  
  
"Right after our game." said Prim.  
  
"NOW!!!"  
  
Prim and Axel left at warp speed.  
  
~*~  
  
Serena was moping around in her room. "I still can't believe it. The girls, especially Mina, have been looking for that special someone for so long. And just now that they may have found them after they've looked so hard, they just throw them away like used tissue paper."  
  
"We all have to make our own decisions." said Luna.  
  
"But to start to think like the outer scouts, believing that they could sacrifice another person's life, how could they?"  
  
"Keep in mind they focused on their duty and kept it in their minds that they would be alone in it. Setting yourself to be alone like that could do things to you. The others are now doing the same thing, it makes me sad for them but I can understand their thinking."  
  
"At least I have Darien." said Serena as she settled in for the night then thought. {If only there was someway they could be with someone without putting him in danger.} She then drifted off to sleep.  
  
[Dream sequence]  
  
Princess Serena was now a fifty year old child (if you hadn't figured it out for approximations in similarities between Silver Millennium ages and regular ones take a regular age and multiply it by ten.) she stood next to the now hundred year old silver haired boy at a rehearsal for a ceremony to welcome the royal families of other planets. She listened as the announcer practiced introducing each family. "The king and queen of Jupiter with the princess and prince betrothed."  
  
"What does betrothed mean?" Serena asked the boy.  
  
"It means that the prince isn't a member of the princess' family but a member of a noble family. An arrangement was made when the two were babies, when they grow up they will get married."  
  
"Do I have one, a boy that I'm going to marry when I grow up?"  
  
"Yes, he's the prince of earth in fact."  
  
"Why do we do this? Why do our mommies and daddies put us together?"  
  
"Each power that came from the Astral can be shared between a boy and a girl. Girls always came from the royal families while boys came from the noble houses. The two always seemed to fall in love, so we continue this today."  
  
The princess imagined what her prince, who she never met, would look like.  
  
[End dream sequence]  
  
~*~  
  
Orinite prepared to open his portal to the Earth. He was a Negaverse warrior who had green hair that went down over his shoulders. "Soon my brother and my queen we will have our revenge." He was Jedeite's younger brother. For centuries he looked up to his brother and trained himself to be just as merciless as him. When Jedeite was imprisoned in an eternal sleep by Queen Beryl he blamed Sailor Moon for it and when Beryl was destroyed causing all the minions she imprisoned to die, including Jedeite, his hatred grew deeper.  
  
The portal opened and he saw it was sunny day in Tokyo. "It's payback time Sailor Scouts." As he stepped through the portal it closed behind him. "Now nothing can stop me from..."  
  
"NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
Orinite got hit by the Nightmare Stone, but instead of becoming the Nightmare's prisoner he had fused with it. He looked into a nearby window as the stone's intended target ran in fright and saw he now had green skin, red eyes and what looked like pods on his belt and a mushroom cap on top of his head. "Uh oh, looks like we got the wrong Guy." said Prim.  
  
"He just popped up out of nowhere!" said Axel.  
  
Orinite pinned Prim and Axel to the ground. "What did you do to me?!!"  
  
"Uh, Uncle Merlor we got a problem." said Prim.  
  
A hologram of Merlor appeared nearby; He had an angry look on his face. "This isn't the Nightmare that I wanted!"  
  
"He got in my line fire after I threw It." said Axel."  
  
"You mean this was an accident?!!" said Orinite.  
  
Merlor put his hand on his forehead. "You pathetic peons, can't I trust you to do anything right?!"  
  
"What about the time I helped you..."said Prim. "No, wait you had an Ingot do it."  
  
"How about when you had me fix the..."said Axel. "No, that blew up."  
  
Merlor sighed. "At this rate we'll never defeat the Sailor Scouts."  
  
Orinite stepped up to the hologram. "Sailor Scouts you say. Just so happens that I have a score to settle with them."  
  
"You do? Then maybe we can rebound from this."  
  
"Mind telling what happened to me?"  
  
"An object called a Nightmare stone has entered your heart. Judging by the fact that you are aware of your transformation, I say that the Nightmare that was supposed to form around you has fused with you instead. You must be exceptionally evil for this to happen."  
  
"I learned from the best."  
  
"How about we make a deal, after you destroy the Sailor Scouts I will return you to original form and let you keep the power that you have gained from this."  
  
"Let me drain as much energy as I want from these humans and you got yourself a deal. Orinite then thought. {These fools will help me revive Beryl as the embodiment of the Negaforce. Then as my reward I'll have her revive my brother.}  
  
Merlor thought. {I'm well aware of what you're up to Orinite. But when you help us free Astra, I will have the last laugh.} Merlor then spoke. "Done, your Nightmare name is Shroomhead. The pods at your belt are explosive and your hat has special powers as well."  
  
"And those are?"  
  
"You're the Nightmare, you should know." Merlor then turned to Prim and Axel. "You two are now under Shroomhead's command, you will be following his orders."  
  
"But Uncle Merlor..."  
  
"I made my decision now get to work!"  
  
"Work?" said Shroomhead. "This will be pure pleasure!"  
  
~*~  
  
Serena was in Darien's apartment. Rini was out with some of the kids from her class so the two had the place to themselves. "Mom and Dad would probably freak at me being at a guy's place alone." Serena thought. "But they don't need to worry; Darien and I don't believe in that kind of happiness until marriage. Marriage..."  
  
"Serena?" asked Darien.  
  
"Oh sorry; just thinking about the girls."  
  
"What about them?"  
  
"They've changed and I don't like were its going."  
  
"They have to choose their own paths, even if you don't like where they lead."  
  
"Luna said something along those lines."  
  
"Come on, they'll be alright. Today's supposed to be about us." The two did a relationship quiz from a magazine and when they finished Darien tallied their score.  
  
"So how'd we do?" asked Serena.  
  
"It says 'You have a meaningful and romantic relationship that will last well into your golden years.' I didn't need a magazine quiz to tell me that." Serena got depressed. "What's wrong now?"  
  
"I'm selfish you know that? My friends are setting themselves up to spend their golden years in loneliness and here I am hogging the most wonderful guy in the universe all to myself."  
  
"Love like that should be exclusive. You and I are meant to be together for the rest of our lives."  
  
"Yes." Serena had a revelation. "And they're meant to be with their princes!"  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"I had another memory come to me in a dream last night. I was only a year older than in the last one, well physically at least, but from what I remember about it we were arranged to married since we were babies in the Silver Millennium because we could share the same power."  
  
"You mean we've been engaged ever since we were nursing?" Darien said.  
  
"Yes." Serena said. "And there were boys who could share the other scouts powers just like we're sharing ours!"  
  
"Do you have any idea on who those princes could have been?"  
  
"No, I didn't meet any of you back then. I was told by that boy with silver hair."  
  
"The same boy in both dreams can't just be coincidence."  
  
"Maybe we should tell them..."But Serena's communicator beeped just before she could finish. "Yes?"  
  
"Serena, a nightmare is attacking the shopping district get Darien over here." said Amy.  
  
"We're on our way!"  
  
An image came to their minds as they left. Darien and Serena were babies crawling up to each other wearing nothing but diapers and giving each other a kiss. {We'd be so cute!} They both thought.  
  
~*~  
  
Greg stood at deck overlooking a lake. "Amy." He sighed. "I know I've haven't seen anything about the future for a few weeks, but maybe I wouldn't feel this heartache if I saw what you were going to do. I know your duty as a Sailor scout is important and you made the choice you thought was right, but it doesn't make anything easier for me."  
  
"I feel the same way about Mina." said Jamie from nearby. "I'm Jamie Carmichael, looks like we're both in the same boat."  
  
"Greg Winters. You're saying that a girl you fell in love with was a Sailor Scout?"  
  
"Yes, she's Sailor Venus, yours?"  
  
"Mercury, but Amy and I broke up recently, mostly because she was worried about my safety."  
  
"The same is true about me and Mina."  
  
"She's the first person I've ever felt that strongly about. Even though I've only caused trouble for her in the past she always stuck with me.  
  
"I felt the same way about Mina. I felt like I stayed back with my feelings for too long and because of that I wasn't able to be with her for as long as I could have."  
  
"I didn't know that this was a common hangout for guys who have been dumped." said Chad.  
  
"Me neither." said Ken. "Maybe we should introduce ourselves. I'm Ken Sanders."  
  
"Chad Bandon."  
  
The other two introduced themselves as well.  
  
"We just heard that your girlfriends broke up with you." said Chad.  
  
"Did you hear any details about why?" asked Jamie.  
  
"No, but I can relate." said Ken. "I broke up with Lita yesterday. We were great friends ever since we were little kids. I always felt that there was something special about the two of us, guess she just didn't feel the same thing."  
  
"Raye and I knew each other for a while." said Chad. "I always liked her but she wouldn't give me the time of day. Then she softened, just enough to like me back. But she pushed me away again, she did it softly but it still is hard to get over."  
  
"Look at us." said Greg. "Each of us sharing our heartaches with total strangers. It seems like something that would only happen in a bad romance/comedy movie."  
  
"Well our girls were special." said Jamie.  
  
"Yeah, if only we could still be there to comfort and protect them." said Chad.  
  
"If only we could turn back the clock and do things over again." said Ken.  
  
The four stood there unaware of danger that was not too far away.  
  
~*~  
  
Shroomhead was throwing his pods that were causing damage to the local area. "That should get their attention." He said.  
  
"How dare you terrify innocent people while they are shopping?! I fight justice and love! I am Sailor Moon and on behalf of the moon I will punish you!"  
  
Moon knight and the other scouts came. "And we are the Sailor team and we will punish you too!"  
  
Shroomhead laughed. "If anyone's going to be punished it will be you five!"  
  
"Punished for what?!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"For what you did to my brother, perhaps you've heard of him? His name was Jadeite!"  
  
"Jadeite's brother?!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"Yes, And the Nightmare form I've been given will let me destroy you all for what you've done! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Orinite but you can also call me Shroomhead."  
  
"Wait a minute." said Sailor Jupiter. "Sailor Venus and I were never part of that battle! We weren't there when they destroyed Jadeite."  
  
"How wrong you are! He wasn't killed in that battle but Queen Beryl punished him with an eternal sleep of darkness for his failure, only kept alive by the Negaforce that was channeled to him through the queen. When the five of you destroyed Beryl you killed him."  
  
"Beryl and Jadeite both got what they deserved!" said Sailor Venus.  
  
"In any case, defeating Beryl was no small feat so..."He threw his mushroom hat at them. "Hat's off to you!"  
  
"LUNAR CURTAIN PROTECTION!"  
  
Sailor Moon's shield protected her and Moon Knight but it didn't seem needed as the hat just flew over the Scouts dropping spores and then came back to Shroomhead. "Looks like you aren't as strong as you claim to be you overgrown pizza topping!" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
Shroomhead started to laugh manically. "I don't get it." said Prim.  
  
"Aren't you supposed to hit them?" asked Axel.  
  
"Why bother, when my spores can do more than simply hurt them?" said Shroomhead.  
  
"The spores?!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"Yes, look at your bodies fools!"  
  
They looked down and saw that a strange fungus was growing on the scouts who weren't protected by the Lunar Curtain. "Ugh, gross! What is this stuff?!" asked Sailor Venus.  
  
"This fungus will grow until it covers you entirely! As it does it will take away your energy and emotions until you become my mindless slaves!"  
  
"That's not going to happen!" said Sailor Moon. "Because I'm going to dust you like I should have done to your brother!"  
  
"I'm stronger than he was now that I'm a Nightmare and you don't stand a chance on your own!"  
  
"We have our friends!" said Moon Knight.  
  
"Friendship, now that's stupid! In a matter of moments your friends will be under my control and you won't be able to bring yourself to kill them to save yourselves! Good thing I have no such handicap!"  
  
"What about us?" asked Axel.  
  
"I don't need your help. Now wait in the alley, I want to take them myself. "  
  
"Alright." said Prim. The two left.  
  
"We can take him!" said Sailor moon. "Use your Talismans with your new attacks and we take him!"  
  
The other scouts summoned Mars' bow and arrows, Mercury's harp, Jupiter's wreath and Venus' golden chain.  
  
"MERCURY ARTIC SLASHER!"  
  
"MARS WARFIRE INCINERATE!"  
  
"JUPITER LIGHTNINGORB BLITZ!"  
  
"VENUS LUMINESCENT PURGE!"  
  
The attacks hit an energy shield that absorbed every attack. "Did you think that I'd come unprepared for this battle?!" said Shroomhead. "Before I came here from the Negaverse I perfected a shield that changes so that the only energy that can penetrate it is same kind as the last attack that hit it, but I can change it before you get a second shot!"  
  
"Mercury!" said Sailor Moon. "He has to have some kind of weakness!"  
  
Mercury scanned Shroomhead and said. "He tells the truth." There was something empty about her voice.  
  
"Oh no!" said Luna who hid nearby. "That fungus is working on them!"  
  
"You have to get it off you!" said Artemis.  
  
"Sailor Moon." said Sailor Mars. "You have to kill us before we start attacking you."  
  
"No! I'll never do that!"  
  
"It's the logical thing to do." said Sailor Venus.  
  
"We can fight it much longer." said Sailor Jupiter. "It makes sense to sacrifice four lives in order to save billions more."  
  
"I'll never become like that! No matter what happens I'll never kill in cold blood!"  
  
"That's what I was counting on!" said Shroomhead. The other scouts were now covered everywhere except their eyes and the lockets on their chests. "Now destroy her for me, Jadeite and the Negaforce!"  
  
The four charged without a word. Sailor Moon and Moon Knight could only fend off the assault.  
  
~*~  
  
At the lake Greg, Chad, Ken and Jamie got a sudden jolt, like an arrow just shoot through their hearts. "Ugh, what was that?" said Chad.  
  
"Whatever you got it seems to be contagious." said Ken.  
  
Just then each of them heard a different voice in each of their minds saying the same thing. "Help my daughter." The voices were those of the kings of the inner worlds. "Your love is in danger. Only you can help her. There isn't much time."  
  
"Did I just hear a voice in my head or am I losing my mind?" said Jamie.  
  
"Not unless I'm losing it too." said Greg.  
  
"Wait a minute." said Ken. "Lita, she's in trouble!"  
  
"Raye too!" said Chad.  
  
"And Amy!" said Greg.  
  
"And Mina!" said Jamie.  
  
"I think they're this way!" said Chad. "Let's go!" The four left still not knowing what it was that drew them toward the battle.  
  
~*~  
  
Sailor Moon couldn't take anymore. Her friends backed off at Shroomhead's command. "There you are beaten, battered and broken. If revenge is dish best served cold then I should call you a parfait! But don't think me too ungenerous, I got a little something I made just for you." He opened a portal and out came a casket with a Lunan symbol on it. "A little something for you to take a nice long nap in!"  
  
Just then the four guys came around a corner and saw what was going on. "Sailor Moon?!" said Ken.  
  
"Get out here!" said Moon Knight. "The other scouts are under his control, leave before they attack you!"  
  
"No! Not Amy!" said Greg.  
  
"Mina, no it can't be!" said Jamie.  
  
"Amy and Mina?" said Chad. "Then the other two must be..."  
  
"Lita!" said Ken.  
  
"Raye!"  
  
"Ah, how touching." said Shroomhead. "Their pathetic boyfriends have come to the rescue. You really should have forgotten about them. You could have lived longer, not that much longer but every second counts!"  
  
"How am I supposed to help her?" said Ken.  
  
"Easy, you don't!"  
  
"There has to be some way." said Jamie.  
  
"If only my gift hadn't left me!" said Greg. "Then maybe I'd know what to do."  
  
"Well I think I know what to do!" said Chad. He got out a tag used by Shinto priests to keep evil spirits away and threw it. "Spirit Ward!"  
  
Shroomhead caught it in mid-air. "Oh no, I might have gotten a paper cut." He said sarcastically. "Why don't the four of you finish off the lover boy brigade?" The scouts rushed toward each of their ex-boyfriends.  
  
"Tell them." said Sailor Moon. "Tell them how you really feel. If you do that they will come back to us!"  
  
"I love you Amy!" Mercury slowed down.  
  
"Raye no one could mean as much to me as you do!" Mars stood still.  
  
"I always wanted us to be together Lita!" Jupiter got on her knees.  
  
"Nothing will keep me from you Mina, Nothing!" Venus collapsed.  
  
The fungus melted away from the scouts. "NO! I had them, not even the silver crystal could have healed them!" said Shroomhead.  
  
Just then the Scouts' lockets glowed and from each came a ring with a stone with the color and symbol of each planet. "I knew it!" said Sailor Moon. "If my prince was reborn with me then their princes had to have been reborn with them!" Each ring flew on to the fingers of the one who pronounced their love to each scout.  
  
"What is this?" asked Ken.  
  
Moon Knight came forward. "Use the power the two of you now share. Think about and it should come to you!"  
  
"MERCURY NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"MARS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"VENUS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
They were covered in the same kind of armor and visor as Moon Knight but they were the colors for each scouts respective worlds and didn't have the same cape that Moon Knight had. "This wasn't supposed to happen!" said Shroomhead.  
  
Sailor Moon went to each of them. "You are the knights of Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus. You will work with the Sailor Soldier of your respective world to keep peace in the universe."  
  
The scouts were beginning to wake up. They looked up to see the Knights. "What who are they?" asked Venus.  
  
"Fools who are going to suffer the same fate as you!" said Shroomhead. He threw his hat again but Sailor Moon used her sword to deflect it back.  
  
"You have the same powers! If one of you attacks after the other you can get past his shield!"  
  
Sailor Mars attacked first and Mars Knight used a double bladed ax to follow up.  
  
"MARS WARFIRE INCINERATE!"  
  
"MARS PYRO AX!"  
  
A fiery shockwave came from the ax and went through the shield. "Ugh! This can't be happening! How can you both use the power of Mars?!"  
  
Mercury Knight thrusted his lance forward.  
  
"MERCURY BLIZZARD LANCE!"  
  
A small snowstorm hit the shield.  
  
"MERCURY ARTIC SLASHER!"  
  
"JUPITER LIGHTNINGORB BLITZ!"  
  
"JUPITER THUNDER CLAWS!"  
  
"The claws on Jupiter Knight's gloves crackled with electricity which shot into Shroomhead.  
  
"VENUS SHINING WHIPLASH!"  
  
Venus Knight's whip glowed and struck the shield.  
  
"VENUS LUMINESCENT PURGE!"  
  
Shroomhead started to back up. "No! Stay back!" he stopped when the back of his foot hit something. He turned around to see the coffin he brought.  
  
"You know that seems to be more your size than mine!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
Her attack broke Shroomhead's shield.  
  
"LUNAR SABER CUT!"  
  
Moon Knight sliced Shroomhead in half.  
  
"My brother, I've failed you!" Shroomhead screamed as he turned into two Nightmare Stone halves. When the halves shattered Orinite was destroyed.  
  
Prim and Axel came from an alley. "I don't care what you say Shroomhead, we're helping!" said Prim.  
  
"A little late for that!" said Jupiter Knight.  
  
"Now to finish the two of you for good!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"Oh look!" said Axel. "Here comes a squad of Ingots to back us up!"  
  
"What?!" the scouts and knights looked behind them.  
  
"Gotcha!" The two disappeared.  
  
"I can't believe I fell for that!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"Its alright." said Mercury Knight.  
  
The Scouts turned their attention to their own knight. Serena could tell they were completely back to their old selves from the hearts in their eyes. "So you are the Knight of Venus." said Sailor Venus. "Since you can obviously protect yourself you don't mind if we tell each other our secret identities?"  
  
"I think you all should." said Sailor Moon. "But in a more private location."  
  
After they got a secluded rooftop as the sunset they all returned to their normal selves. The scouts were surprised at who their knights actually were.  
  
"Greg!"  
  
"Chad!"  
  
"Ken!"  
  
"Jamie!"  
  
Serena laughed. "Surprised?"  
  
"But how?" said Amy.  
  
"We just had this feeling, came to help and these rings came from your lockets." said Greg. "We still don't understand why."  
  
"I'll tell you guys all about it." said Serena. As she told them about the Silver Millennium, her dream, the future that Rini came from and everything else the knights missed another image came into her mind. It was like the one she had yesterday except when she glanced from Neo-King Endymion's eyes she saw her friends were still watching her, but only when they could glance away from the eyes of their princes as they danced together. {Now this is definitely a vision on how things are going to be.} She thought.  
  
~*~  
  
Back in the Blackstar fortress, Prim and Axel had just finished reporting to Vega and Merlor. "We have only one nightmare stone left, time is running out and my patience is wearing thin!" said Merlor. "The only thing we seem to be getting more of is enemies!"  
  
"Than it's a good thing that I's shows up." said a feminine voice that sounded like a gangster.  
  
They turned around to see a large muscular blue skinned woman with pointed ears, blonde hair and red eyes. She had the black compass star insignia of the empire on her belt. "May I introduce Ursa, the Black Vanguard member I requested for this mission." said Vega.  
  
Ursa got down on one knee. "It's an honor to serves you Prince Vega."  
  
Prim came up to her. "Finally, someone to have girl talk with!"  
  
"Stuff it! I came here to do a job."  
  
"It won't be easy now that the Sailor Knights have started to appear." said Vega.  
  
"Yes." said Merlor. "Both they and the Sailor Scouts will be more determined to protect their love interests."  
  
"When I 'm done with them they won't be needing sweethearts." said Ursa. "They'll need an ambulance!"  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Ursa seems like one tough customer. But the Scouts and Knights will beat her, I hope. Send in those reviews! My Email is Richforce@adelphia.net! 


	9. Echoes of the Future

Richforce: I will be beginning an important sub story in this chapter. I do not own Sailor Moon.  
  
Woman in suit hands Richforce a paper.  
  
Richforce: This chapter has been brought to you by Grabco Corporation. Somebody please free me from this torture!  
  
*~*  
  
Chapter nine: Echoes of the Future  
  
Axel burst into Merlor's lab. "We are so toast!"  
  
"We gotta take everything!" said Prim. "The TV, the mouthwash, the waffle iron..."  
  
"What about this picture?" said Axel as Merlor came in. "Am I making a weird face in it?"  
  
"You can relax." said Merlor. "I just got word from Vega that we will be working under Ursa. So put everything back where it belongs."  
  
Just then Ursa came into the room. "I hope you had fun, cause now it's time to get down to business." She turned to Merlor. "I knows what you've been up to."  
  
"You do?!"  
  
"The Vanguard wants in."  
  
"Wait, I thought you were loyal to the emperor."  
  
"'Emperor' is the key word we don't owe nothing to that pansy Vega. Dolean wants to spread the empire to ends of the universe but Vega, well something about him don't seem right."  
  
"So we have something in common."  
  
"We also have some information on the vault that you may not know about. Cut us in and I spill you the beans."  
  
"Very well."  
  
"Alright, so's Astra was sealed up a long time ago."  
  
"Yes I know, continue."  
  
"Anyways whoever did it used eight keys to lock up the vault. From what we could scrounge up, even if you find the vault it can't be opened without the keys."  
  
"So where are the keys?"  
  
"All we could find out was that the keys would be guarded by these 'Warriors of Love'."  
  
"Great." said Axel. "Even more work."  
  
"Wait!" said Prim. "Remember that little snot-nosed brat of a scout."  
  
"Yes." said Merlor. "She poses no significant threat to us."  
  
"I saw that she had this key made out of crystal hanging on a chain around her neck."  
  
"I suppose it's as good a place to start as any." said Merlor.  
  
"Ok." said Ursa. "We just get Vega to find out where she'll be tomorrow and then will nab the key and then give everyone else the cement overcoat."  
  
~*~  
  
Later at Angel Wing High School the final bell rung and Serena meet up with her friends. "Is everyone ready for our trip to beach tomorrow?"  
  
"Yes." said Amy. "It's just that well..."  
  
"Come on spit it out." said Raye.  
  
"This will be the first time Greg and I did anything like this and I'm a little nervous."  
  
"I don't see why." said Lita. "You two are destiny, remember? Like rest of the Scouts and Knights."  
  
"We're not sure if it will go that far."  
  
"They wouldn't have come with us from the Silver Millennium if it wouldn't." said Serena. "Just go have fun, that's the point of the trip."  
  
"Ok!" said Mina. "Remember, tell your relativities that we trust these guys, bring food and except for Rini the dress code is Bikinis for the girls and Speedos for the guys!"  
  
"I'm not sure if Chad would ware that." said Raye.  
  
"I'm not sure if I would." said Amy. "I have to go and buy one tonight."  
  
"Well I think that Jamie will like me in mine as much I'll like him in his." said Mina.  
  
"You think Ken would think I look good in one?" said Lita.  
  
"In one of what?" said Victor as he came up.  
  
"Victor, I thought you would have office work right now." said Serena.  
  
"Not today. This was actually my last day here."  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be, I came here to learn the ropes before teaching at Sparrow Hill Elementary."  
  
"That's where my cousin goes to school. Her name is Sarini, but we all just call her Rini."  
  
"Maybe I'll be teaching her class. So what were you talking about?"  
  
"Oh, we were discussing bathing suits for a trip to the beach tomorrow."  
  
"So will Rini be coming?"  
  
"Yes, why are you asking?"  
  
"The way you talk about her reminds me of my little sister."  
  
"You have a little sister?"  
  
"I haven't seen her in a long time. When she was a little kid she had a smile that could light up the world. She could always make you feel good about whatever was on your mind."  
  
"You miss her don't you?"  
  
"More than anything, I came here hoping to find her. Crazy, huh; trying to find someone in a place as big as this."  
  
"You have to keep up hope."  
  
"I think I found her."  
  
"Then maybe we could arrange an introduction."  
  
"Maybe..."  
  
"Oh, look at the time! I have to convince my dad to let me go with Darien. He can be so protective of me sometimes."  
  
"I can understand." Victor said as the girls all went home. "I can understand very well."  
  
~*~  
  
"The Beach eh?" said Ursa.  
  
"That's what Vega tells us." said Merlor.  
  
"So we's gotta get her while she's there. Here's the plan; we use the last Nightmare stone we got on someone in the area and while they are busy getting their tookus' knocked senseless, I grab the key and come back before they even notice it's gone. And while all that's going on we reveal to them that we know their dirty little secret. Once they knows that we knows who that are they think twice before crossing us if their folks are in danger."  
  
"We tired stuff like that." said Prim. "They totally win every time."  
  
"How many Ingots do you's use?"  
  
"I don't know." said Axel. "Maybe ten or twelve."  
  
"Make it fifty."  
  
"Like, I'm not sure if I can carry that many." said Prim.  
  
"Than get the other brainless twin to help you, Ingots are supposed to overwhelm their enemies with numbers!" she turned to Merlor. "Got any chumps or chumpettes in the area we could use."  
  
"I just found one." Merlor brought up an image of a young girl with a seashell clip in her hair. "She lives in the area and the Nightmare should be able to defeat them."  
  
"I just need it to stall them for long enough for me get the key from the brat. And then after we get it and if it's the key we're looking for I'll pay them a personal visit!" Ursa pounded her fist into her palm.  
  
~*~  
  
Serena and Darien were both at his apartment along with Rini discussing the trip to the beach. "I still can't believe that dad was smiling when we left." said Serena. "Usually when I mentioned you he would accuse you of being the reason for my bad grades and start telling me to relay his death threats to you."  
  
"Well when your mom was there I felt that he at least would keep his anger in check. But I when he talked to me alone I was surprised he didn't carry any of those death threats out."  
  
"I think after he actually met you he realized that you must be special if I chose you."  
  
"So your family really likes me now?"  
  
"I think mom's already picking out the china pattern!"  
  
Rini sighed. "You'll be married soon and if I can't figure out why I'm here I might become my own big sister."  
  
"I might become my own big sister too." said Diana.  
  
Serena curled up with Rini on the couch. "Don't worry you'll find out. Tonight just think about those big blue waves."  
  
"Why can't I come?" said Diana.  
  
"Because they're afraid we may use the beach as a litter box." said Luna.  
  
"But don't worry that pretty little head off." said Artemis. Mina had dropped him off a couple of hours ago. "We have a full day of fun activities planned."  
  
"Like?"  
  
"Well, board games, uh, a movie, and a lot of napping."  
  
"I still don't get what I see in you." said Luna.  
  
Serena picked Luna up. "I got to go home. I'll set my alarm early so we can spend as much time at the beach as we can."  
  
"And I'll wake her up when she hits the snooze button." said Luna.  
  
Serena ignored her and left. "Looks like it's bedtime for you." said Darien.  
  
"Can't I stay up and watch the late show?" asked Rini.  
  
"First of all, you're too young for it. Second, you're going to need all the energy you can get for the beach tomorrow."  
  
"And that goes for you too." said Artemis.  
  
"I thought we cats were nocturnal." said Diana.  
  
"Bed."  
  
As the two tucked away their future daughters away for the night they thought about how they were going to miss it until they could do it again. But next time they would really be theirs.  
  
~*~  
  
[Dream sequence]  
  
She kept running holding Diana in her arms. She looked back and saw the Ingots, dozens of them carrying some strange rifle-like weapons chasing after them and firing bolts of energy that almost hit her a couple of times. She looked out a window to see hundreds more, no thousands storming the palace as Crystal Tokyo burned. "Just a little farther." she told Diana.  
  
"I'm scared Rini!" Diana cried. "Mama, Papa, they're gone! What will we do? How will I ---- --- -----?" Rini couldn't get the last part of it but she seemed to understand.  
  
"It's going to be ok. Mama will help, she's just got to!" Rini kept running until she got to the room that would serve as their last refuge, The Gates of Time. Her mother and father were waiting for her with the Guardian Scouts and Knights. Nearby them were some shadowy figures she couldn't see too well. They closed the door behind them knowing it wouldn't hold for long. "Mama, Luna and Artemis, they're dead! Everyone's dead!"  
  
"Don't cry." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "We are safe for now."  
  
"Small Lady." said Neo-King Endymion. "You're mother and I have something important for you to know."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Our kingdom is doomed." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "The timeline has somehow been altered and this is the result."  
  
"No! It can't end this way, it can't!"  
  
"Rini, get a hold of yourself!" said Neo-King Endymion. "You have to go back both for your own safety and to keep this from happening."  
  
"How will I keep it from happening?"  
  
"We don't know." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "But there is something else you'll have to do there. ------ ----- ------." Rini could see her mouth moving but no sound came out. "Understand?"  
  
"But I'm not ready! ---- -- --- -----!" now no sound was coming out of her mouth.  
  
"You are ready and ---- --- ----- ---!" said Neo-King Endymion. "There isn't much time left! Go now!" Just then the doors broke in and Ingots fired their weapons and killed the Scouts and Knights.  
  
"No!" screamed Rini. The shadowy figures seemed to react to the deaths but she couldn't see how.  
  
Neo-King Endymion tried fighting them off and while he was able to take quite a few for every one he destroyed twenty more came in its place. "We will always love you!"  
  
"Go! I know that you can do It." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "------ ---- - ------ ----." Again nothing came from her mouth. "Take our love with you!" Then both of Rini's parents were hit.  
  
"No! Mama, Papa!"  
  
"I will always love you small lady..." Then they both died.  
  
"MAMA! PAPA!" the next few moments was a blur but then she went through the time gate.  
  
[End Dream Sequence}  
  
"MAMA, PAPA!" screamed Rini as she woke up in a cold sweat.  
  
Diana woke up. "No! They can't be!" she apparently had the same dream.  
  
"What's going on in here?" asked Darien as he opened the door to the room.  
  
"Did I just hear screaming?" asked Serena who arrived just a few minutes ago.  
  
"Rini must have had a bad dream." Darien was reluctant to use the word "Nightmare" to describe what happened.  
  
Serena came up to Rini and hugged her. "It was just a dream and dreams can't hurt you."  
  
"It wasn't just a dream. I remember a little now." Rini cried.  
  
"Was Diana screaming?" asked Artemis as he came in with Luna.  
  
Diana went right between them. "Please don't leave me again!" she cried.  
  
"Again?" asked Luna. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"We remembered in a dream." said Rini. "The Palace was under attack, we couldn't stop them and all of you... all of you..."  
  
"Please." said Darien.  
  
"All of you were killed! Mama and Papa..."Rini started to sob.  
  
"Don't worry about it." said Serena. "Now that we know a little about it we may be able to stop it."  
  
Rini continued to cry. "Maybe we should talk about it after they feel better." said Darien. "Let's get our things go to beach.  
  
They packed up and left for the day.  
  
~*~  
  
At the beach the others were waiting when Serena pulled up in her car. To her surprise everyone including Chad and Amy followed Mina's "Dress code" of Bikinis and Speedos for this trip. "I see that everyone was approved by family for this trip." said Serena.  
  
"Not really." said Amy. "Mom had to work late again and with dad on the road I didn't have the chance to introduce Greg."  
  
"Well I got almost got pounded by Rex." said Ken. "It wasn't until Lita told him that I was 'Freckles' until he stopped giving me the third degree."  
  
"Freckles?" asked Serena.  
  
"It was a nickname Rex gave him when we were kids." said Lita. "Ken had them all over his face back then."  
  
"Well my meeting with Mina's dad felt like a job interview." said Jamie.  
  
Mina fumed. "The first questions he asked him we're about his goals and 'credentials' and then he gave us both his 'you have to be more realistic with your future' speech."  
  
"So he doesn't like the fact that I want to be a novelist. That's his problem."  
  
"Your novels, my modeling, he just doesn't like risks. At least you and Chad had it easy Raye."  
  
"Yes." said Chad. "He said it was about time for us and then..."  
  
Raye finished for him. "He had an attack."  
  
"Attack?!" everyone asked.  
  
"He has this heart condition he kept from everyone. He's fine, but he has to take this medication everyday and when ever he has an attack. I'm so afraid that this will be the death of him."  
  
"He'll be fine." said Serena; she looked toward Rini who didn't seem to hear any of the conversation. "Um, guys. She remembered something about why she's here now and it's really got her down. I want her to tell us more about it but I want to get her in a better mood first."  
  
"There's a souvenir stand over there." said Greg. "Why don't you get her something there before she hits the beach?"  
  
Serena took his advice. She took Rini up to the stand and a young lady with a beautiful seashell clip in her hair was tending it. "Hi how may I help you?"  
  
Rini saw the clip. "That clip you have is pretty."  
  
"Thank you. I made it myself."  
  
"You made it?" asked Serena.  
  
"Yes I go along the beach and pick up seashells and use them to make hairclips, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and other accessories. Since what I make depends on what I find, no two are alike."  
  
"Would you like one Rini?" asked Serena.  
  
"Yes I'd love one."  
  
Serena was glad that Rini was in a better mood. "How about, that bracelet there?" she said pointing to a seashell bracelet that had five different shells on it.  
  
"Good choice." said the vendor. "That's one of my favorites."  
  
Serena paid the girl and put the bracelet on Rini's wrist. "Let's go; everyone else is waiting for us."  
  
~*~  
  
The day went on slowly after that. This particular beach was semi- secluded so they had it mostly to themselves. They spent their time swimming, playing volleyball, eating picnic lunches or just laying back getting a tan and listening to the waves.  
  
"Ah!' said Serena as lay next to Darien in her pink bikini and him in his black Speedo. It was late in the afternoon and everyone was a little tired. "This is the life no school, no chores, no evil monsters just you, me and the waves."  
  
"It is nice for a change." Darien looked at the others who were also lounging in similar attire which, in order to match as couples, were in the colors of their planets. "Especially for them, those five fought so hard, if anyone deserved to have someone to have for the rest of their lives it's them."  
  
Serena looked around and saw Rini sitting by herself wearing a one piece bathing suit and building a sand castle. "Maybe now is the time to really talk about what she remembered." She got up and went to Rini. She had a good look at the sand castle. "The Crystal Palace?"  
  
"I don't think I'll ever see it again." said Rini.  
  
"That's not true."  
  
"It would probably be destroyed."  
  
"But we can change history right?"  
  
"I was sent here to do that, but I don't know where to start."  
  
"Maybe we can start by telling me what you remember."  
  
"I'm not sure. It seems like there are pieces missing from that memory."  
  
"Pieces?"  
  
"Sometimes when someone talks no sound comes out of their mouths, even my own. Also there are these black blobs that are supposed to be something but I can't see what."  
  
"Well what can you remember?"  
  
"We were being attacked by Ingots, a lot more of them than I can count. I ran to the Gates of Time and I talked about something important with Mama and Papa. Then they were killed and I came back."  
  
"What did you talk about?"  
  
"I can't remember, there are a of lot pieces missing from that part."  
  
"Well if it was Ingots than maybe we can change it back by beating the Blackstar Empire."  
  
"But I don't think it will be home anymore."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"You never were supposed to find the Infinity or Astral powers so my time has already changed and I don't think that's all."  
  
"What else could have happened?"  
  
Rini looked at the Knights; she had a sour look on her face. "Them. They're not supposed to be here and I don't like them."  
  
"Rini! That's rude!"  
  
"Before it was just me and all of you, but now that they are here. I don't know it feels like they did something that doesn't make me as important to the scouts anymore."  
  
"But they are happy; would you want to take that away?"  
  
"I guess not."  
  
"I'm sure that you are still important to them, you just have to share that attention."  
  
"I guess I've been a little spoiled with it being just me. But still I'm worried about what they did, if it affects us beating the Blackstar."  
  
"If anything they will help us. Want to go for one last swim?"  
  
"Ok." Soon a water fight started between everyone. Overall it had seemed like a very good day.  
  
~*~  
  
Prim and Axel hid behind the souvenir stand, the sun was slowly setting over the mountains to the west. "Why do you get the Nightmare stone?" asked Axel.  
  
"Like, because you've been hogging them all this time and besides you're carrying some of the Ingots."  
  
"Ok, so when is Ursa going to get here?"  
  
"When we start causing trouble!" Prim went to the counter and found it empty. "Like where is she?"  
  
"Hello?" the vendor asked as came up from the beach. "Are you here to buy something?"  
  
"No." said Axel. "My sis has a little present for you. Ready?"  
  
"Like, yeah." said Prim. "I've seen you do it a dozen times."  
  
"LIKE, NIGHTMARE GO!"  
  
The vendor became a pinkish snail-like woman who had a staff with spiked conch shells on either end, in her hand and a very large shell on her back. "Whelk at your service." It said. The Scouts and Knights came out of a nearby restroom after they had changed back to their normal clothes.  
  
"What in the world?" asked Chad.  
  
"Can the innocent bystander routine." said Axel. "We know you all are Scouts and Knights so let's just fight!"  
  
"Or do you want your families and friends to get hurt?" said Prim.  
  
Lita got mad. "If you hurt one hair on their heads..."  
  
"Let's just cream them!" said Raye.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
"MOON REGAL POWER!"  
  
"MOON FAIRY POWER!'  
  
"MERCURY ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"MARS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"MARS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"VENUS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"VENUS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
The entire team stood before the nightmare. Sailor Moon stepped forward. "How dare you threaten our loved ones?! I stand for justice and Love! I am Sailor Moon and on behalf of the Moon I will punish you!"  
  
"Why would you do something as horrible as that?!" said Sailor Mini- Moon.  
  
"Hey it's part of the job!" said Axel.  
  
"And so is this!" said Prim as they threw Ingots on the ground which formed into fifty solders.  
  
"We never had to fight this many before!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"Hang tough!" said Jupiter Knight.  
  
A fierce melee ensued. Whelk used her staff like a club and with so many Ingots attacking at once no one was able to use their special attacks without getting hit before they could finish. Rini seemed to get free for a moment. "Yes, this should even things a bit!"  
  
"MOON GLOWING..."  
  
It was then Ursa made her move, teleported in and struck Rini in the back of the neck with just two fingers knocking her out; the seashell bracelet fell off her wrist. "Sweet dreams runt!" She picked Rini up. {Better take the whole enchilada and not risk being caught.} Ursa teleported away and took Rini with her.  
  
Meanwhile the last of the ingots were defeated and they now turned their attention to Whelk. "It's time to finish this!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"MERCURY ARTIC SLASHER!"  
  
"MARS WARFIRE INCINERATE!"  
  
"JUPITER LIGHTNINGORB BLITZ!"  
  
"VENUS LUMINESCENT PURGE!"  
  
"MERCURY BLIZZARD LANCE!"  
  
"MARS PYRO AX!"  
  
"JUPITER THUNDER CLAWS!"  
  
"VENUS SHINING WHIPLASH!"  
  
Whelk withdrew into her shell which absorbed all the attacks. "Ha ha! You can't hurt me while I'm in my shell!"  
  
"Then I'll just have to crack it!" said Moon Knight.  
  
"LUNAR SABER CUT!"  
  
The sword not only cracked the shell it cut it wide open. "Gulp, uh oh!"  
  
"Consider yourself, escargot!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
Whelk screamed as she was separated from the vendor, reverted back into a Nightmare stone and shattered.  
  
"You better give up!" said Venus Knight to Prim and Axel.  
  
"Let's get away from these beachbums!" said Prim.  
  
"Yeah, we got what we came for!" said Axel before the two fled.  
  
"'We got what we came for?'" said Sailor Mercury. "That doesn't sound good!"  
  
"Has anyone seen Sailor Mini-Moon?" asked Sailor Moon. Everyone shook their heads.  
  
"Don't panic." said Moon Knight. "Everyone, revert and look around."  
  
It didn't take Serena long to find the seashell bracelet. "Oh no; they got her! That's what they were talking about! This whole thing was planned so they could kidnap Rini!"  
  
"I know its hard." said Raye. "But the only thing we can do now is head home. It's getting late; our families will be worried about us."  
  
"But Rini..."  
  
"We'll consult Luna and Artemis. We will find her."  
  
Serena wasn't so sure. "How could I possibly be a good mother in the future if I let this happen now?"  
  
~*~  
  
Back at the star fortress they put Rini in a special case and brought her before Astra. "Why have you brought me a child?" said Astra.  
  
"We have reason to believe that she may have one of the keys to the vault." said Merlor.  
  
"One of the keys?! Being the key here and let me feel its power!"  
  
Merlor put the time key into the flame but soon afterward it was forced out onto the floor. "You dolts! That is not one of the eight keys! Even from this accursed vault I can feel their power and this is not it!"  
  
"It was worth a shot." said Prim.  
  
"However." said Astra. "This is no ordinary key either; space and time warp around it."  
  
"You mean like time travel?" asked Axel.  
  
"Yes, this child comes from the future." Astra closed her eyes for a few moments. "I have a plan. This child can help us destroy our enemies."  
  
"How?" asked Merlor.  
  
"The key will be used in this manner Merlor; and Ursa you have an important job as well." She closed her eyes again then opened them. "Think you can handle it?"  
  
"I will do as you ask Astra if this plan really can destroy the Scouts and Knights once and for all!" said Merlor.  
  
"Ursa?"  
  
"I can do it." said Ursa. "After all, I am the darkness warrior of corruption!"  
  
"The time of my freedom draws nigh. Soon the entire Universe will once again tremble before me!"  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Poor Rini! What do these sickos plan to do with her? You'll just have to read the next chapter to find out! On the bright side I paid off those corporate leeches! I'll have to be more careful with what I say in the bathroom from now on. 


	10. The Return of the Wicked Lady

Richforce: Tenth chapter, we've reached a milestone this time and top it all off, no more ads!"  
  
Singing Angels: Hallelujah! Hallelujah!  
  
Richforce: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and the--- whoops, almost gave something away!"  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Ten: The Return of the Wicked Lady.  
  
[Dream Sequence]  
  
Serena suddenly found herself face to face with Neo-Queen Serenity and she didn't look too happy. "I should have known!" the queen said.  
  
"I didn't know!" said Serena.  
  
"Of course not!" snapped the queen. "You were far too irresponsible and clumsy to look after my daughter! The fact that you became me is nothing short of a miracle!"  
  
"We're still looking, we will find her!"  
  
"She's already been found!" the queen pointed to a small, dimly lit casket. Serena peered in and saw Rini's lifeless body inside.  
  
[End Dream Sequence]  
  
"Ah!" Serena woke up and stared at the alarm clock. I was only 1:17 am.  
  
Luna woke up as well. "Another bad dream?" said Luna.  
  
"Maybe I should study a little more."  
  
"Serena you're not going to pass that English test if you can't keep what you study in your head; you need sleep!"  
  
"Easy for you to say; you haven't had Diana kidnapped!"  
  
"I almost feel like she has been. Ever since she learned about what happened to Rini all she does is mope around or stare into empty space, I miss the Diana I know, her naivety, her playfulness and her love of life."  
  
"I'm sorry I snapped it's just that I feel so helpless that we can't find her and all we can do is to wait for the Blackstar's next move."  
  
"Go back to bed. I'll stay on top of the covers and see if I can purr your bad dreams away."  
  
~*~  
  
"Merlor, I'll be heading back to earth." said Vega.  
  
"But why my lord, I thought we had all the information we needed on the scouts."  
  
"I'm going to see if anyone down there knows anything about the vault. I may be gone for a few days, inform me on your progress. Oh, and don't get any ideas Merlor, Ursa is in charge." Vega then vanished.  
  
"Ursa is in charge." said Axel sarcastically. "I'm beginning to see why you're getting fed up with him."  
  
"As soon as Astra is released the first thing I'll have her do is blast him into dust and blow this planet into trillions of pieces, each one the size of a pea!"  
  
"Relax geezer." said Ursa. "Our sailor problems will soon be over." She looked over her shoulder. "Right?"  
  
Rini stepped out of the shadows, only she wasn't Rini anymore she had once again become the Wicked Lady, however instead of the mark of the Negamoon the black compass star mark of the empire was on her forehead. "Yes Miss Ursa, I will kill them all."  
  
"Not all of them." said a voice. Behind the Wicked Lady were four shadowed figures.  
  
"Leave some for us!" said another voice.  
  
"I'm itching for a good fight!" said a third.  
  
"I am going to have so much fun!" said the fourth.  
  
"Remember." said Ursa. "This time we're just saying hello, Black Vanguard style! Mess them up a little, have them worry for while, then blow them away."  
  
The five vanished back into the shadows. "Like, are you sure they can find the vault and keys?" said Prim.  
  
"We have to wait for more Nightmare Stones to arrive." said Merlor. "The purpose of this mission is to destroy those pests once and for all!"  
  
~*~  
  
Serena was in a fast food restaurant that afternoon after school. She was there to meet Victor who asked her to talk earlier. "You ok?" He asked.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"You barely touched your food, that's not like you."  
  
"I'm so sorry it's just that..."  
  
"Something wrong?"  
  
Serena decided to tell the just enough of the truth. "Rini was kidnapped."  
  
"I'm so sorry."  
  
"I just don't know what to do about it."  
  
"Did you go to the police?"  
  
"There isn't enough for them to on right now."  
  
"I know I can't understand what you're going through, but I had a similar experience with my little sister."  
  
"You did?"  
  
"She wasn't little any more then; in fact she was getting married. I looked forward to nothing except being the best man and watching mom cry as dad gave the bride away."  
  
"So what happened?"  
  
"The night before the wedding a bunch of ruffians broke into our home. There was a lot fighting and mom and dad didn't make it, I managed to get away and so did my little sister; I haven't seen her since."  
  
"But you think you found her here in Tokyo?"  
  
"I'm very sure, it's just that we haven't seen each other in a long time and I'm afraid that she'll think I changed too much."  
  
"If she really loves you she'll just be glad you're ok."  
  
"What a jerk I am! I've been going on about my problems and you're the one with a real crisis."  
  
"No, it got my mind off of it. Maybe it isn't as hopeless as it seems."  
  
Just then an explosion was heard from outside followed by screams of panic. "What?!" said Serena.  
  
"We better get going! Leave it up to the fire department!"  
  
{Sailor Moon maybe needed as well.} Serena thought. She followed the crowd out to the front door and went into the restroom.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
~*~  
  
Sailor Moon came out ready to face anything but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw next. "No! You can't be back; you can't!"  
  
But she was. "Greetings Sailor Moon, I was hoping to be the one to kill you!" said the Wicked Lady she was hovering overhead but then descended.  
  
"Snap out off it! You're not the Wicked Lady!"  
  
"Actually I prefer the name Eclipse now."  
  
"You're Sailor Mini-Moon remember?!"  
  
"I remember that I will destroy you!" Eclipse opened her hand and pink crescent moons and stars flew out. Sailor Moon used her communicator as she dodged.  
  
"Anyone who can hear me! The Wicked Lady is back and I need help!"  
  
~*~  
  
Amy had already transformed and was rushing to the scene; little did she know that she was being watched. Suddenly a blue beam hit the ground in front of her and it froze with a large number of icicles popping out of the ground. She looked at the damage when a woman dressed in a blue outfit like that of the wicked lady with short blue hair, blue eyes and a black compass star on her forehead jumped and landed on top of the tallest one of the icicles. "I knew you would probably be around here Sailor Mercury!" said the strange woman. "I am Chill, second of the five Wicked Ladies sent by the Blackstar Empire to destroy you!"  
  
"Five Wicked Ladies?!"  
  
"I knew you'd be confused, I also know that you're going to call your friends and then scan me to see if I have any weaknesses!"  
  
Sailor Mercury was just about to do that. "How did you know; are you some kind of physic?"  
  
"No, but I am smarter than you are and your predictability is a big help too."  
  
"Just because I may be a little set in my ways doesn't mean you're smarter!"  
  
"You're right; I'll prove it when I come up with counters for your strategies as soon as you think them up!"  
  
"If there are five of them then the others could be in trouble too!" thought Sailor Mercury.  
  
~*~  
  
Sailor Mars had already met the Third one; she had a fiery red outfit, long purple hair and purple eyes, her demeanor was unusually calm. "Allow me to introduce myself I am the Wicked Lady, Blaze."  
  
"And that's supposed to impress me?!"  
  
"Such a temper, you won't last five minutes against me."  
  
"A demon like you could never beat me!"  
  
"In battle the winner is the one who can keep their cool, even under fire!" Blaze launched a fireball from her hands. Sailor Mars dodged and countered with a kick that Blaze dodged easily. "You see, attacking in anger gives you more power but at the expense of control. Control is what is needed to win. Allow me to demonstrate."  
  
Blaze launched another attack and used her waved her hands to move the fireball in midair so that it almost hit Sailor Mars. "So you can make corrections, big whoop!" said Sailor Mars but deep down she thought. {Boy I am in trouble!}  
  
~*~  
  
Sailor Jupiter's foe struck without warning her body crackling with electricity hitting the nearby ground causing a hole to be blown in the concrete. "Whoa, who are you?!" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"The Wicked Lady, Bolt!" said the woman in a green outfit with green hair done up in a pony tail and green eyes. "Now that the introductions are over let's go fight!"  
  
She lunched a flurry of blows and all Sailor Jupiter could do was block. {She's not letting up!} she thought but said "You certainly have a one track mind!"  
  
Bolt said between blows. "And you think you're going to win?! I'm much stronger than you are, you can't possibly beat me!"  
  
"We'll see about that!"  
  
~*~  
  
Sailor Venus was stopped by bunch of orange balls of light that exploded as they hit the ground from above. She heard laughter and looked up to see a woman in an orange outfit with long carrot red hair and blue eyes standing on a rooftop. "Ha Ha Ha! You should have seen the look on your face!"  
  
"That wasn't funny!"  
  
"You're right, it was hilarious!"  
  
"Just who are you anyway?!"  
  
"The Wicked Lady, Dazzle. I'm going to kill you just for the fun of it!"  
  
"I won't allow your kind of fun, Red!"  
  
"I can forgive that "Red" crack, but no one stops my fun!"  
  
Dazzle threw more light balls but Sailor Venus jumped up to the roof and lunged at her. But Dazzle dodged in an almost playful manner.  
  
"Stand still!"  
  
"Jeez, lighten up grandma!"  
  
"Grandma?!" Sailor Venus yelled with pounding vein, but deep down she thought. {This woman is more dangerous than she appears to be.}  
  
~*~  
  
The fights went for only a short time when...  
  
"I better get going." said Eclipse.  
  
"Rini wait!" said Sailor Moon. Eclipse teleported away and at the same time the other four wicked ladies said their farewells and vanished.  
  
The scouts soon caught up with Serena. "What kept you?!"  
  
"We each had to face a different Wicked Lady." said Amy.  
  
Serena's mood had changed from anger to shock. "Different Wicked Ladies?!"  
  
"We were struggling to stay evenly matched." said Raye. "But they didn't even break a sweat!"  
  
"I don't know where they came from but they were tough." said Lita.  
  
"I doubt we've seen the last of them." said Mina.  
  
Serena looked at the sky and thought. {Don't worry Rini, I will save you again.}  
  
~*~  
  
Back at the Blackstar fortress the Wicked Ladies discussed their victory in a cave-like chamber. "Well done girls!" said Eclipse, it seemed like they were actually happy.  
  
"Everything went according to plan." said Chill.  
  
"When do we get to do it again?" said Dazzle.  
  
"Yeah, I want to fight for real this time!" said Bolt.  
  
"Calm yourselves." said Blaze. "We have to keep our focus if we plan to win."  
  
"And that's what we's are going to do." said Ursa as she came into the chamber.  
  
"Hello Miss Ursa." The wicked ladies said as if they were children addressing a schoolteacher.  
  
"We'll give them until tomorrow night to let them make their peace. Then give them the cement shoes!"  
  
"Yes Miss Ursa." They replied. Ursa left.  
  
"So what do we do tonight?" asked Blaze.  
  
"How about a victory party?" said Chill.  
  
"Sounds like fun!" said Dazzle.  
  
"Care to join us Eclipse?" asked Bolt.  
  
"There's no one else I'd rather be with!" Eclipse said.  
  
The party was underway.  
  
~*~  
  
A meeting of all the scouts was called; the knights were also in attendance. "I can't be involved." said Hotaru.  
  
"Why not?" said Serena. "I thought you two were friends!"  
  
"I'm just not sure if I can take what happened to her the way she was able to handle me being controlled by Mistress Nine. And besides I don't want to kill her if it should come to that."  
  
"It won't!"  
  
"Hotaru has the right idea, at least as far as the outer scouts should be considered." said Trista. "I'm not able to get much from the Time Gate but I did find out that we shouldn't interfere in this."  
  
"Interfere?" asked Greg.  
  
"Something about this concerns future events that have been altered. All I could find out about it was that only the knights and the scouts of the inner solar system should be involved."  
  
"So you're not going to help." said Raye.  
  
"Afraid not." said Amara.  
  
"But we will hope for the best." said Michelle. "We will be with you in heart."  
  
"Thanks." said Serena.  
  
"Any clue to who the other four are?" asked Amara.  
  
"They can't be the Amazon Quartet; I checked and they are still sleeping until they can awaken as the Scouts of the asteroid belt." said Amy.  
  
"Whoever they are they can't beat us!" said Chad.  
  
"Yeah!" everyone else said.  
  
~*~  
  
The following day was relatively uneventful; School went on as it always had except that Serena made an A in her English test, and the rest of the afternoon went on lazily. Since it was Friday the gang decided to have a "date night". They went downtown looking for something to do. "I never thought we would all be doing this together." said Serena.  
  
"A dream come true." said Mina.  
  
"Well your dream was just turned into a nightmare, and not the monster kind!" said Eclipse. She and the Wicked Ladies leapt down to the street. "It's time to finish this!"  
  
"We have to change in order to keep innocent people from being hurt!" said Raye.  
  
"Better find a place where no one can see us." said Amy.  
  
Luckily the appearance of the Wicked Ladies made bystanders scurry away.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"MARS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"VENUS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"MOON REGAL POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"MARS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"VENUS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"Good." said Bolt. "Now it's thrashing time!" she charged Sailor Jupiter and Jupiter Knight.  
  
"I got Mercury." said Chill.  
  
"Mars is mine." said Blaze.  
  
"Then I have Venus!" said Dazzle.  
  
"Let's get 'em team!" said Eclipse.  
  
As Ursa had planned the scouts and knights were separated into pairs that each of them fought.  
  
"It's like she's predicting our moves!" said Mercury Knight.  
  
"Cool reason, pure and simple." said Chill. "You think too much with your hearts and that hinders your judgment!"  
  
"You're wrong!" said Sailor Mercury. "Without feelings influencing us we'd be no better than machines!"  
  
At the same time Mars Knight seemed to get a good hit on Blaze who started to cry. "Whoa, I'm sorry!"  
  
Blaze then caught him off guard with a roundhouse kick. "You we're faking it?!" yelled Sailor Mars.  
  
"All my life I was picked on because I used to be a crybaby, so I figured why not use it to my advantage against soft hearted guys like you!"  
  
"Playing on others sympathy, that's low!"  
  
The Jupiter pair was having a hard time trying to keep Bolt off balance. "Why are you doing this?!" said Jupiter Knight.  
  
"I just like to fight that's all!" said Bolt. "I don't care that much for the Blackstar, but hey, anything for a fight!"  
  
"Fighting just for the sake of fighting without a cause?!" said Sailor Jupiter. "That's senseless!"  
  
Meanwhile Dazzle was enjoying herself. "Ha Ha Ha! You guys are so much fun to torment!"  
  
"You think hurting people is fun! You make me sick!" said Venus Knight.  
  
"You're not going to beat us!" said Sailor Venus.  
  
Sailor Moon and Moon Knight fought Eclipse trying to snap her back to her senses. "Rini!" said Moon Knight. "Try to remember who you are!"  
  
"You don't belong with those fiends!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"On the contrary." said Eclipse. "The other four are the only ones I've ever belonged to!"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"We all came from families who didn't care about us except when we reflected on them, after we each ran away all we ever had was each other and I won't abandon my friends now!"  
  
"Your 'friends' are lying to you! You're more important to your parents than anything!"  
  
"I won't let you talk about them that way!"  
  
The Scout and Knights got the upper hand and forced the five back into one group. "Everyone fall back!" said Eclipse and they Teleported back to the star fortress.  
  
Sailor Moon fell to her knees. "Lost her again."  
  
"Don't worry Sailor Moon." said Moon Knight. "We'll reach her somehow."  
  
"And the next time we meet those witches they're dead meat!" said Mars Knight. Except for Sailor Moon and Moon knight everyone agreed with him.  
  
~*~  
  
Back in their cave chamber, the wicked Ladies were having an argument. "If you two hadn't rushed in without thinking they would smears on the walls right now!" yelled Chill.  
  
"Hey I was trying to have a good time!" said Dazzle.  
  
"I think it was the two of you who messed it up by not going all out!" yelled Bolt.  
  
"All of you are ruining my concentration!" said Blaze.  
  
"Please stop fighting!" pleaded Eclipse.  
  
"Anything I can do?" said Ursa.  
  
"No Miss Ursa!" they all said.  
  
"The way I see it they have a little something you don't, teamwork!"  
  
"But we are a team!" said Eclipse.  
  
Ursa picked up a rock. "What you need is leadership, so I'm placing Eclipse in charge of your little group. Understand?"  
  
"Yes Miss Ursa!"  
  
"Oh by the way. If any of you ever run from a battle again..."Ursa squeezed the rock into powder. "You better run fast!"  
  
"Of course Miss Ursa!" they said with fear.  
  
"Good, now get some sleep cause soon we'll make them sleep PERMANENTLY!"  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Who are the other four Wicked Ladies? I know but I'm not telling yet! You'll just have to keep reading. Send in reviews and drop me an Email at Richforce@adelphia.net 


	11. Ursa Strikes!

Richforce: Real big fight this chapter! Be sure to get front row seats! Sailor moon doesn't belong to me and neither does (blank).  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter eleven: Ursa Strikes!  
  
A meeting was held at Darien's apartment. "We have to find a way to get Rini back to our side." said Serena.  
  
"The problem is the other Wicked Ladies." said Raye. "They obviously got some hold on her. Dust them and I think she'll snap back to senses and then Serena can use the crystal to heal her."  
  
"That brings a new problem." said Mina. "How do we beat them?"  
  
"I doubt that it will be that easy." said Amy. "They seem to be trained just to destroy us."  
  
"Maybe that's how we can win!" said Greg.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Alright, take these buttons as an example." He put five buttons down on the table; they had six colors two each of blue, red, green and orange and one white and one black one. He laid the colors across from each other. "They want us to fight like this, but we have to fight them like this." He changed the blue, red, green and orange buttons around so that only the white and black ones were across from each other and rest were across from a different color.  
  
"Brilliant!"  
  
"I guess we have a little more in common than I thought." Greg blushed.  
  
"This just might work." said Luna. "Doesn't this sound good Diana?"  
  
Diana wasn't paying attention; she watched an infomercial on TV. Luna sighed. "Diana, quit staring into that box."  
  
"Why bother?" said Diana.  
  
"Rini wouldn't want you be like this."  
  
"I want her to tell me. When will you find her?"  
  
"If you had been listening you would know that..."Artemis stopped her.  
  
"I don't think that she could take the truth in her current emotional state. We have to keep it a secret from her until she feels better."  
  
"That could be a long time."  
  
"Not if our plan works."  
  
Ken pounded his fist into his palm. "Still, I would have relished taking out Bolt!"  
  
"I feel the same way about Chill but this gives us a better chance for success." said Greg.  
  
"Guys." said Serena referring to the Knights and Scouts. "Let me just say that the way you talk about the other four creeps me out a little bit."  
  
"What do you mean?" said Jamie.  
  
"It almost sounds like you're going to enjoy killing them."  
  
"I don't know." said Chad. "Something about Blaze just makes me feel so angry that I just want to, like she really deserves death."  
  
Serena thought to herself. "I hope they don't do something they'd regret later."  
  
~*~  
  
"Attack pattern Alpha!" said Eclipse. The Wicked Ladies all attacked a rock formation while moving in a particular pattern.  
  
"Attack pattern Beta!" they used a different formation on another target.  
  
"Attack pattern Gamma!" again a stalagmite crumbled. The five Wicked Ladies stopped to catch their breath. Ursa came in.  
  
"I'm impressed something that don't happen to often."  
  
"Thank you Miss Ursa. We came up with strategies that work with our own traits and personalities."  
  
"You's gonna get a chance to use them."  
  
"Really, we're going get to fight again?!" said Bolt.  
  
"I have a plan to trap them."  
  
"Weee, fun time!" said Dazzle.  
  
"Just remember that there is a zero tolerance for failure this time!"  
  
"I calculate our chances of success at 120%" said Chill.  
  
"I've been meditating on their demise. We will win." said Blaze.  
  
"Good, now get outta here!"  
  
After they left Ursa went into the hallway which had a sharp technological contrast to the cave chamber she came from. "Here's the supposedly invincible Black Vanguard member!" she heard over her shoulder. She turned around and found Prim and Axel.  
  
"What do you's mean by 'supposedly'?"  
  
"Well it's just that ever since you got here all you've done is knock a little girl unconscious and play nanny to some fashionably challenged bad girls." said Prim.  
  
"And your point is?!"  
  
"We don't think that you're as tough as Vega made you out to be." said Axel.  
  
"Urgh!" Ursa punched a hole in the wall. Sparks flew from the damaged circuitry.  
  
"Forget what we said!"  
  
"We didn't mean it!" said Prim.  
  
"So you doubt my strength? Then I guess there's only one thing to do." said an enraged Ursa.  
  
"I Axel, here of sound mind and endangered body..."Axel wrote down aloud.  
  
"Now I lay me down to sleep..."said Prim.  
  
"And that's to beat the Sailor Shrimps myself!" Ursa walked away.  
  
"We're not dead?" said Prim.  
  
"If there is a god in the universe, he must like Me." said Axel.  
  
~*~  
  
That afternoon the freshmen of Angel Wing High went on a field trip while the seniors stayed to take their usual classes. For Serena and Molly that meant gym. "I can't believe that Sammy and Mika are holding hands at the aquarium while we are climbing ropes!" said Serena.  
  
"I'd give anything to be there myself but right now we're getting exercise."  
  
"Not to mention rope burns."  
  
"Look at the bright side, after this year we won't have to take any more gym classes."  
  
"I still can't believe it; soon we may never see each other again."  
  
"I'll keep in touch with you; we've been friends since kindergarten that's something you can't just forget."  
  
"It just that its change, big change. I am a little sacred of it all. We've all changed the past few years."  
  
"All boys and girls have to become men and women."  
  
"I'll just miss everyone. There were times when I just wanted to ditch school but now I don't want to leave."  
  
"We came here to prepare for the real world and I know you'll be something."  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
"Collins! Baker! Less conversation and more elevation!" said the gym coach who was obviously ex-military. When he blew his whistle the two scurried up the rope.  
  
~*~  
  
That afternoon the bus carrying the freshmen class back to school was going its route. Sammy and Mika were talking. "Wasn't that penguin exhibit cool?" said Sammy.  
  
"Not as cool as you." said Mika.  
  
"The best part is that we were together and Eddie is probably in detention."  
  
"We've been seeing each other for a while now."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I'm beginning to see us as more than friends; more like, well, family."  
  
"I know how you feel. Serena introduced the boyfriend she's going steady with and I feel like he's a big brother to me. I think Serena's gonna marry him."  
  
"So you think we'll get married one day?"  
  
"Maybe, why don't we take it a day at a time and see where it leads us."  
  
Mika then drug him into a kiss and he found himself excepting it. After they finished he said "You know it actually feels good when Eddie isn't forcing us to do it in a closet."  
  
"Yes, we'll take it a day at a time."  
  
Just then the bus came to a sudden stop jerking it passengers forward. "What the..."  
  
Eclipse came into the bus. "Congratulations! You've been selected as bait for our trap, cooperate and you may just live through this!"  
  
"I'm scared Sammy!" cried Mika.  
  
"Don't worry, I'll protect you!" said Sammy. "I just hope Sailor Moon can save us!"  
  
~*~  
  
Serena was walking home when she saw a news report as she passed an electronics store. The attractive reporter with blonde hair that went down to her shoulders was talking as a bus was seen in the background. "The five strange women have just one demand for the hostages' release; that the Sailor Scouts appear to meet their demands. Anyone else would be attacked on sight. So far none of the freshmen from Angel Wing High School have been harmed."  
  
"Rini." Serena got out her Communicator. "Guys did you catch the news?"  
  
"Yes." said Darien. "Everyone is on their way but Luna and Artemis has to distract Diana while I leave."  
  
"Get here as soon as you can."  
  
Serena went into an alley.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
~*~  
  
The Scouts and Knights confronted the Wicked Ladies. The Reporter, Vivian Fenwick, turned to her camera man. "This is the first time we got a shot of them with those Knight guys. Start rolling and make me look good!"  
  
"We're on!" said her cameraman, Gary Daniels a young man with brown hair and green eyes.  
  
"This Vivian Fenwick for channel 8 action news! The Sailor Scouts have arrived with young men who recent eyewitnesses call the Sailor Knights and are about to confront the Angel High bus hijackers. Let's zoom in and see what is happening."  
  
Sailor Moon stepped forward and saw Sammy and Mika through the bus window and then started to talk with Eclipse. "Let's discuss this. Let the hostages go and surrender and I will heal you with my crystal."  
  
"There is only one thing we want and that is to destroy you!"  
  
"You can't reason with her!" said Sailor Mars. "Not while they are still around!"  
  
"You can't beat us!" said Mercury Knight.  
  
"We'll see about that." said Chill.  
  
Eclipse took charge. "Ready! Attack pattern..."  
  
Just then Ursa teleported in. "Miss Ursa, what are you doing here?" the Wicked Ladies said.  
  
"Change of plans, I'll be dealing with these punks personally!"  
  
"You're fighting yourself?!" asked Blaze.  
  
"Yeah, I got it. Just sit back and take notes. And if you're real lucky I'll let you finish them off."  
  
"Just who are you?!" said Sailor Venus.  
  
"I'm Ursa; the Blackstar Empire called me here to take you out!"  
  
"Then did you do this to Sailor Mini-Moon?" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"Hey, they don't call me the darkness warrior of corruption for my health!"  
  
"That's it I'll never forgive you for this!"  
  
"Oh no, the twerp won't forgive me. Like I care!"  
  
"Our strategy's changed." said Sailor Mercury. "I've scanned her she's strong but those bulky muscles seriously cut down her speed. Keep your distance and we can win!"  
  
Ursa turned to the Wicked Ladies. "Lesson one, always let your opponent make the first move and never tip your hand."  
  
"MERCURY ARTIC SLASHER!"  
  
"MERCURY BLIZZARD LANCE!"  
  
"MARS WARFIRE INCINERATE!"  
  
"MARS PYRO AX!"  
  
"JUPITER LIGHTNINGORB BLITZ!"  
  
"JUPITER THUNDER CLAWS!"  
  
"VENUS LUMINESCENT PURGE!"  
  
"VENUS SHINING WHIPLASH!"  
  
Ursa didn't even try to dodge. She took the full force and a cloud of dust covered the area. "Alright we got her!" said Sailor Jupiter. But when the dust cleared Ursa was still standing.  
  
"Not even a scratch!" said Mars Knight.  
  
"Lesson two." Ursa said to the Wicked Ladies. "Don't ask for any quarter or give any!"  
  
Ursa then rushed forward and used professional wrestling moves to seriously hurt Mars and Jupiter Knight.  
  
"I thought you said she was slow!" said Venus Knight.  
  
"Her little scan didn't take gravity into account." said Ursa. "On my own planet the gravity is twenty times the gravity of this little dirt ball, so here I'm as light as a feather and as agile as a shark!"  
  
"Then let's see you dodge this!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"MOON MAGNUM STARBEAM!"  
  
Once again Ursa didn't move and took the full force without any damage. "I think I actually felt a tickle that time." said Ursa. "Now let me show you a real signature move." Ursa's hand clenched into a fist and it started to glow. "Ready or not, here comes the pain!"  
  
"MEGATON FIST!"  
  
The punch connected and Sailor Moon was sent through a couple of brick walls not only that but the forceful wind caused by the attack pushed the others off the ground and landed meters away from where they started. "We have no choice." said Sailor Moon. "Sailor Scouts prepare for a Planet Attack!"  
  
"But your current state you could be..."said Sailor Venus.  
  
"We don't have any choice! Ready!?"  
  
"MOON POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY POWER!"  
  
"MARS POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER POWER!"  
  
"VENUS POWER!"  
  
"SAILOR PLANET ATTACK!"  
  
Their energies came together and flew toward Ursa. She crossed her arms and braced herself.  
  
"MAXIMUM ENDURANCE!"  
  
She glowed in a rainbow of colors as the attack hit. Ursa struggled for a short time and when the Planet attack broke Ursa was only pushed back a few centimeters. "No! How?!"  
  
"Lesson three." Ursa said to the Wicked Ladies. "Always keep a few surprises up your sleeve. That attack might have actually been a threat. Fortunately I have the ability to use my energy to create a barrier that can withstand the most powerful of attacks! You don't stand a chance, and the funny thing is you never did!"  
  
"Finish them off Miss Ursa!" said the Wicked Ladies.  
  
"How to do it though?" she looked at the bus. "Ah ha!" she picked it up as the students inside screamed.  
  
"NO! I surrender! Just put the bus down!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"I'll put it down, ON YOUR HEAD!"  
  
"This is terrible!" said Vivian. "With the Sailor Scouts at the mercy of this muscle bound Brunhilda, is this Tokyo's darkest hour?!"  
  
"Take care of them won't you Dazzle? I'm a bit camera shy."  
  
"No problem Miss Ursa." She threw a light ball at the camera which blew up after Gary threw it on the ground.  
  
"Whoa!" said Gary. Vivian ran off and so did Gary with some reluctance.  
  
"Now where was I?" said Ursa. "Oh yes. I was going to crush you like the bugs you are."  
  
"Rini?!" said Diana as she came up from an alley with Luna and Artemis chasing after her. "I saw it on the news but it can't true, you can't be this bad."  
  
"Who are you?! What are you talking about?!" said Eclipse. The other four wicked ladies were confused.  
  
"How can you not remember me? You're my best friend in the whole world!"  
  
"But I've never met you before! How do you know my real name?!"  
  
"Please stop hurting people; I know that you are really kind at heart."  
  
"What is this feeling? It's like I know you but how? How?!"  
  
"Miss Ursa!" said Chill.  
  
"We need you!" said Blaze.  
  
"Eclipse is going mental on us!" said Bolt.  
  
Ursa put the bus down gently. "I'll let you go this time. But know this; you have no chance of standing against the Blackstar now!"  
  
She took the Wicked Ladies and fled.  
  
"Rini!!" said Diana.  
  
"What are you doing here? Not that I mind the rescue." said Sailor Moon.  
  
"She ran out here when she saw Rini on the news." said Artemis.  
  
"Diana, I'm sorry you had to see her that way." said Luna.  
  
"Its ok." said Diana. "I know I can save her, I know I can get the old Rini back."  
  
Everyone just stood there contemplating on Diana's role in saving Rini and on how to defeat Ursa.  
  
~*~  
  
Back at the Blackstar fortress Ursa was talking to Merlor. "And then this little gray kitten showed up and threw Eclipse outta whack."  
  
"I thought we would follow Astra's plan, you shouldn't have fought them yourself."  
  
"But Prim and Axel..."  
  
"It doesn't matter now. The Sailor Scouts and Knights should be downhearted after losing to you, but we now risk losing the girl and if we lose her the others may follow."  
  
"Relax, the Sailor scum don't even know who they are. Once we set the other four up for the fall those chumps will be knocked down with them like dominos."  
  
"Yes, we just needed Eclipse to lead them for a while, now that the Scouts and Knights are dead set on destroying them the vault and keys will be as good as ours!"  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: What's that dirty old man up to this time?! He wants the Wicked Ladies to lose?! Find out why next chapter. Ciao! 


	12. Cats in the Rain

Richforce: For this chapter I'll have my disclaimers on the bottom. Don't skip to the bottom and read them now, wait until you've finished the chapter. I'm serious.  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter twelve: Cats in the Rain  
  
The Collins family watched the news. Vivian Fenwick was serving as an anchor. "As this exclusive footage shows, the new attacker had the Sailor Scouts and Knights out done at every turn. The situation was eventually resolved by unknown means, but with this first recorded defeat of the teenage superheroes this reporter is beginning to question their ability to protect us from this new threat. Now to Dave Gates with the weather."  
  
"Grab your umbrellas it is going to pour tomorrow..."  
  
"I still can't believe that she lost." said Sammy. "Sailor Moon always came through before, but this new enemy just tossed her to the side like a rag doll."  
  
"At least you're safe." said Irene.  
  
"By the way." said Richard. "I haven't seen your cousin Sarini lately. I hope she's ok."  
  
"I'm sure that she's around here somewhere." said Serena with a half hearted laugh. "If you guys don't mind I want to go to bed early tonight."  
  
"Ok, see you in the morning."  
  
Serena then went upstairs to her room. Luna was at Darien's apartment with Artemis so they could both keep an eye on Diana. "Have we finally met our match?" Serena asked herself. "Before today I thought no one could beat us if we all worked together, but Ursa is so powerful how can we possibly win?"  
  
~*~  
  
Eclipse was lying on her bed, as sparsely furnished as the Wicked Ladies' chamber was it still had a few creature comforts. "Who are you?" she said.  
  
"Thinking about that stupid kitten!?" said Bolt.  
  
"Oh, hi girls, I didn't see you coming."  
  
"That incident yesterday has disrupted your focus." said Blaze.  
  
"You don't meet a talking kitten everyday."  
  
"Don't tell me that you're going to try to find it?" said Chill.  
  
"Well I've been thinking about it, she just seems so familiar. She even knew my real name."  
  
"Eclipse is your real name!" said Dazzle sounding serious for once. "Rini is a just a painful forgotten memory to you!"  
  
"I'm beginning to wonder if what we are doing is even right."  
  
The other four got real mean looks on their faces. "How can you say that!" said Chill.  
  
"We fight them so we can break free of the lives that our parents forced on us!" said Blaze.  
  
"We promised each other that we would always stick together as friends!" said Bolt.  
  
"If you don't want to break free of the mockery that they forced us to live, then I guess you're not our friend anymore!" said Dazzle.  
  
"No!" said Eclipse. "I'm still your friend! The very first memory I have is of us together!"  
  
[Flashback]  
  
"They look so cute taking a bath together!" said a voice. Rini was just a baby and she splashed happily.  
  
"You all must be so proud that they are growing up so healthy."  
  
Rini looked across the tub and saw four other baby girls; one with blue hair and blue eyes, one with purple hair and purple eyes, one with green hair and green eyes, and a carrot top with blue eyes. They all started splashing along with her.  
  
"Oh look they're playing together!"  
  
They all had big toothless grins.  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"Our parents." said Eclipse.  
  
"They showed their true colors after we got older." said Chill.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
Chill saw herself as just a shadowed figure. She was at a desk reading and looked up. "Mama, Papa, I've been reading for a while, can I go play with my friends?"  
  
Her parents were also shadowed but in a more menacing way. "Absolutely not!" said her father. "We have to get you ready for school!"  
  
"But Papa..."  
  
"You're not going to get into college by playing silly little games!" said her mother. "Now stay there and keep reading until we tell you otherwise!"  
  
"Yes Mama." A tear was in her eye.  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"My parents didn't care about how I felt either." said Blaze.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
Blaze also saw herself as a shadowed figure but they had all blocked out faces, including their own, because it was too painful to remember otherwise. She was sitting on a counter crying her heart out as a bandage was applied to a scraped knee. "Stop that!" said her mother. "Honestly, it's just a little blood!"  
  
"But Mama, it hurts!"  
  
"You have to stop crying every time something happens!" said her father. "You live in the real world, deal with it!"  
  
Blaze stopped crying out loud but the tears kept coming.  
  
[End Flashback]  
  
"They never understood us." said Bolt.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
Bolt sat in a corner, her parents weren't happy with her. "You were fighting again?!" screamed her father. "Just how many times do your mother and I have to get you out of trouble you little juvenile delinquent?!"  
  
"But daddy I..."  
  
"We don't care why you did it!" said her mother. "Now shape up or you will get worse than a spanking and the corner! Got it?!"  
  
Bolt shook her head yes.  
  
[End Flashback]  
  
"And they were so cruel." said Dazzle.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
Dazzle was sitting down in her room facing her parents. "How could you have turned out this way?" said her father. "This behavior is unacceptable!"  
  
"I was just having a little fun!"  
  
"Turn around." said her mother. Dazzle did so and ended up looking into her mirror. "See that, good looks, it seems to be the only thing you inherited from me! You are a spoiled little brat that doesn't do as she is told and it isn't our fault, understand?!"  
  
"Yes mommy."  
  
[End Flashback]  
  
"But we ran away from all that." said Chill. "We stuck together and promised each other that we'd never break apart."  
  
"The five of us are the only family we need." said Blaze.  
  
"Miss Ursa helped make us strong so nobody can hurt us again." said Bolt.  
  
"And we need you as our leader." said Dazzle. "So forget about the little fuzzball, she's not important."  
  
"I just don't know anymore." said Eclipse. "But my heart tells me that you are my friends."  
  
"Good." The four said as they left with a smile.  
  
"But she is my friend too."  
  
~*~  
  
At Darien's apartment Diana waited until Luna and Artemis were both asleep. "I'm sorry but I have to find her." Diana whispered. "We're friends and even though I couldn't remember what happened to you our friendship was the only thing that got me through it." She licked Luna then Artemis. "Good bye, Mama, Papa." And then she snuck out a window onto a tree and down to the street so she could save her best friend.  
  
"Maybe we should follow her." said a young feminine voice.  
  
"She could lead us to them." said a young masculine voice.  
  
"Not yet." said another young masculine voice. "She may not remember us yet."  
  
Another young feminine voice spoke. "Ok, but I hope we can stop hiding soon."  
  
It started to rain.  
  
~*~  
  
"What do you mean she's gone!?" said Ursa.  
  
"We woke up this morning and she wasn't in bed or anywhere else so she's gone." said Dazzle.  
  
"She couldn't have just vanished into thin air!"  
  
"We think she went down to Earth to find that talking gray kitten." said Chill.  
  
"So why are you standing around here?!"  
  
"We wanted to ask you first." said Blaze.  
  
"Alright go down there and find her then bring her back but just in case you's are going to get a little help."  
  
Prim and Axel came into the chamber. "Like we're going down with you!" said Prim.  
  
"I'm Axel and she's Prim. We'll be your co-minions today." said Axel.  
  
"Ok now that you've got these two helping you go down and find her. Oh, and if she turns traitor on us, take her down!"  
  
"Yes Miss Ursa." The Wicked Ladies said.  
  
"Don't sound like you mean it."  
  
"Well Eclipse is our friend." said Bolt.  
  
"People like us don't have friends! There are only two kinds of people those who have follow the Blackstar and those who don't. The second group don't live too long."  
  
"Yes Miss Ursa." The four truly hoped that they didn't have to kill their friend.  
  
~*~  
  
"Diana is missing?!" said Serena.  
  
"Luna and Artemis are already looking for her and I called everyone else." said Darien over the communicator.  
  
"I'll help out! Diana's a friend and our best chance to get Rini back!" Serena went downstairs. "Mom, I'm going to help find a friend's missing kitten!"  
  
"Ware a raincoat; its pouring outside." said Irene.  
  
Serena put on the rain gear and went out.  
  
~*~  
  
Diana went through one alley after another pretty soon she ended up getting lost. "Rini, if you can hear me come out! I want to talk to you!"  
  
Just then three large stray dogs came out growling. "Uh, you don't want to eat me. I taste just like chicken and I'm high in bad cholesterol."  
  
The dogs ignored her cries and lunged. Suddenly Eclipse came from nowhere and used punches and kicks to send the dogs whimpering away. "Rini, I knew I'd find you! Thanks for saving me!"  
  
"Just looking for answers." said Eclipse. "You said we were friends but I never met you before yesterday."  
  
"Well we did. They must have done something bad to you."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Those Blackstar guys."  
  
"But they gave me a home after I ran away from my cruel parents."  
  
"Your parents were anything but cruel! They loved you more than anything, and they brought us together."  
  
"I just can't trust what I remember any more."  
  
"Than trust your heart, what does it say?"  
  
"That you're telling the truth."  
  
"Then come back. Let Sailor Moon heal you."  
  
"I can't, my friends they need me."  
  
"I'm your friend, not them! Friends wouldn't want you to hurt people!"  
  
"But I feel that they are important to me. I know! Why don't you come with me? I'm sure Miss Ursa will let me keep you."  
  
"I don't want to know her or any of them! Ursa's a very bad lady!"  
  
"Talking with the fuzzball again?" said Chill as she came out of the shadows with the other four Wicked Ladies.  
  
"Chill, Blaze, Bolt, Dazzle, what are you doing here?!" said Eclipse.  
  
"We came to find you." said Blaze. "And it looks like you lost focus again."  
  
"It's time for you to choose!" said Bolt. "Her or us!"  
  
"Make the right one." said Dazzle. "We don't want to hurt you."  
  
"But I can't choose between you!" said Eclipse.  
  
"If anyone here is going to get hurt it's you!" said Sailor Moon. The rest of the team came as well.  
  
"We didn't expect to see all of you." said Chill. "What say we finish this once and for all?!"  
  
"We wouldn't have it any other way!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"Remember our strategy and hit them hard!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
Sailor Moon kept a confused Eclipse away from the fight. The Wicked Ladies didn't expect their opponents to change who they fought so they started losing. "We almost got them!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
~*~  
  
Luna and Artemis were at the moment unaware of the battle and were still looking for Diana. "When I find her she is in big trouble for making us come out in this rainstorm!" said Luna. "I still can't believe that she would run away like that." Artemis laughed a little. "What's so funny?!"  
  
"Ironic isn't it?" Artemis said. "The two of us looking for a runaway kitten when in a sense it was our running away that got us into this mess in first place."  
  
Luna sighed. "Do you think she knows why she is the way she is? That it was a mistake we made so long ago?"  
  
"If she does than she seems to accept it."  
  
"I just feel so guilty that she has that body through no fault of her own."  
  
"So do I. We got what we deserved and I don't question it, but she wasn't even born yet, she shouldn't have to suffer our fate."  
  
Just then Prim and Axel grabbed them from behind. "Look what we have here!" said Axel.  
  
"Put us down!" said the Moon cats.  
  
"Not a chance!" said Prim. "You're worth some serious brownie points!"  
  
"It's not like you can keep the Wicked Ladies from beating up your friends!" said Axel.  
  
Just then Prim and Axel were attacked by what seemed to balls of fur that attached themselves to their faces.  
  
"Get'em off! Get'em offffff!" the two screamed. They tripped and hit their heads on the ground rendering them unconscious.  
  
Luna and Artemis looked at their saviors and saw four kittens; one with pink fur and blue eyes, one with blue fur and red eyes, one with orange fur and green eyes and lastly one that had white fur with large black spots and yellow eyes. Each one had the Lunan mark on their foreheads. Luna was astonished. "Wait you're..."  
  
They all rushed forward and snuggled close. "Mama! Papa!" they said.  
  
"Mama? Papa?" asked Luna and Artemis.  
  
"Yes." said the orange boy kitten. "Diana and the rest of us were born in the same litter."  
  
"Litter?!" said a shocked Luna.  
  
"Yes." said the pink girl kitten. "I'm Stardust."  
  
"I'm Moonbeam." said the blue boy kitten.  
  
"I'm Sunspot." said the speckled girl kitten.  
  
"And I'm Crescent." said the orange boy kitten.  
  
"A litter." said Luna.  
  
"Well we are cats and that's how we tend to give birth. In litters." said Artemis.  
  
Luna was starting to recover from the shock. "So what are you all doing here?"  
  
Suddenly they had frightened looks on their faces. "Oh no!" said Stardust.  
  
"We got to stop the fight!" said Moonbeam.  
  
"What fight, why?" said Artemis.  
  
"We'll explain later, lets hurry!" said Sunspot.  
  
As the family rushed down the alley Prima and Axel woke up. "Uh, Prim."  
  
"Yes, Axel."  
  
"Maybe we shouldn't tell anyone that some little kittens kicked our butts."  
  
"Good plan."  
  
~*~  
  
The four Wicked Ladies were beaten pretty badly; they were on the ground close together at the mercy of their attackers.  
  
"It's time to finish you off!" said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"You're never going to hurt anyone ever again!" said Mercury Knight.  
  
"Good riddance!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"There can be no mercy for any of you!" said Mars Knight.  
  
"We can't let you go this time!" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"Now you will pay for your crimes!" said Jupiter Knight.  
  
"You four are rotten to the core!" said Sailor Venus.  
  
"Any last words?!" said Venus Knight.  
  
The four just looked to Eclipse. She then turned to Sailor Moon and Moon Knight. "If you are going to destroy them, than you'll have to destroy me too!"  
  
"Don't worry Rini." said Sailor Moon. "It will all be over with soon."  
  
"MERCURY..."  
  
"MARS..."  
  
"JUPITER..."  
  
"VENUS..."  
  
Just then Luna and Artemis stood in between the Scouts, Knights and the Wicked Ladies. "Um, guys we're about to kill these monsters, could you please move?" said Venus Knight.  
  
"We can't let you do that!" said Artemis.  
  
"Why in the world not?!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"Because we found out that if we don't, you'll eventually end up hating yourselves for the rest of your lives!" said Luna.  
  
Then the four kittens stopped in front of each Wicked Lady. "I think I remember them!" said Diana. "Yes, they're my brothers and sisters!"  
  
Moonbeam started talking to Chill. "Hello, Ariel. You may not remember me now but we're the best of friends. Remember how I like to sit in your lap while you read a book?"  
  
"What?" Chill said.  
  
Stardust talked to Blaze. "Annika you must remember me! Like how you always were able to find me when I hid with your stuffed toys, we were so close you always knew exactly where to look."  
  
"We met?" said Blaze.  
  
Crescent spoke with Bolt. "Hey Daisy. Do you remember how when you baked something you always snuck a piece of cake or a cookie just for me? You have such a kind heart."  
  
"I feel like I know you." said Bolt.  
  
Sunspot then went to Dazzle. "Hi Gloria. Remember how we always got into trouble together. When we were found out you always insisted that I had nothing to do with it. You never wanted anyone to get hurt by our jokes."  
  
"Who are you?" said Dazzle.  
  
"You should know them." said Luna. "They tell me that you were very close."  
  
"Luna, just who are they?" said Moon Knight.  
  
Artemis answered. "They are..."  
  
"MEGATON FIST!"  
  
Ursa slammed her fist into ground as she dove from a rooftop. The impact knocked everyone to the ground. "On your feet ladies!" said Ursa. "We are out here, as of a week ago!"  
  
"But Miss Ursa..."  
  
"Now!"  
  
"Yes Miss Ursa."  
  
"As for you chumps consider this a stay of execution. You get yourself some tombstones, cause you're gonna need 'em!"  
  
They teleported away. "We almost had them!" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"Why did you do that!" said Mercury Knight "And just who are those kittens?!"  
  
"Like Diana they are our children from the future." said Artemis. "They serve as guardians for your daughters."  
  
"Our Daughters?!" said the confused Scouts and Knights.  
  
"Yes, the ones that you were so intent on killing just moments ago are the products of your love!" said Luna.  
  
"What did we almost do?!" was the general feeling among them. Weapons were dropped as they fell to their knees and cried so that their tears mixed with the rain. Sailor Moon could only feel pity and be unable to comfort them for now.  
  
~*~  
  
Back at the Blackstar fortress Ursa made her report to Merlor. "Astra's plan is a bust." said Ursa. "Those little fuzzy twerps have probably already spilled the beans."  
  
"Astra's plan has not failed." said Merlor. "We just have to change a few details."  
  
"But the scouts and Knights were supposed to be devastated after doing their own kids in."  
  
"They are, but they won't stay that way, now that they know and I will turn it to my advantage! Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!"  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Merlor's not done with them yet?! I hope it will turn out well in the end! Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and the scouts' daughters (except for Rini.) and the kittens (except for Diana and Sunspot.) are based on Angel Raye's Chibi Scouts. 


	13. Piece of Mind

Richforce: Here's wishing everyone Merry Christmas! Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon and Angel Raye owns the Chibi scouts (here called Mini scouts.)  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter thirteen: Piece of Mind  
  
[Dream Sequence]  
  
Princess Serena was pouting in her room when the older boy peeked in from the door. "Can I come in?"  
  
"Why was Mommy and Daddy mean to me?" asked the Princess.  
  
"They weren't mean to you; they punished you for fighting with the other Princes and Princesses."  
  
Serena rubbed her sore rear. "They never did that before."  
  
"They spoiled you a little but now they realize that you need disciple."  
  
"So they don't like me anymore."  
  
"Just the opposite; you and all the other princes and princesses were punished by your parents because they want what's best for you."  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
"You will in time. And when in time you become a mother you'll do what is best for your child."  
  
"How do I become a Mommy? I know I need to be married, but then what?"  
  
"I'll tell you, but you better not let any one else know I told you. Well when a Man and a Woman love each other very much they get married. And when they get married..."The boy continued to explain about the birds and the bees.  
  
[End dream sequence]  
  
Serena woke up with the rays of the sun on her face. She knew what to do and for the first time who to thank. She got her communicator and sent a time delayed message. "I'm calling an emergency scout meeting; the knights and cats will also be required to attend. The meeting will be at the Shrine around noon." She looked out the window. "Thank you, big brother."  
  
~*~  
  
Eclipse sat on top of a stone pillar in the Wicked Ladies chamber. The other four appeared on nearby pillars. "I guess you're here to tell me I'm not your leader anymore."  
  
"We understand now." said Chill. "I don't feel like doing this anymore too."  
  
"We were the ones who lost focus on what was important." said Blaze.  
  
"I don't even know why we're fighting." said Bolt.  
  
"It's just not fun anymore." said Dazzle.  
  
"My memories are different now; I remember how much they loved Me." said Eclipse.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
She held both her mother's and her father's hands. Her friends and their parents were also in the circle, as busy as they were and as dignified as had to act they still had time to play a simple childhood game. "Ring around the rosie, pockets full of poise. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!" they all fell on the ground and laughed.  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"Ours are too." said Chill. "The truth was quite different than what I remembered."  
  
[Flashback]  
  
She could she herself now. She was still reading but Greg interrupted her. "I think it's time you took a break."  
  
"Just a little more; it's very interesting." said Ariel.  
  
Amy then came in. "I'm glad that you want to study so hard, but you should also spend some time just being a kid. Your book isn't going anywhere, go out and have fun."  
  
"Ok, I love you."  
  
"And we love you too." Her Parents said.  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"My parents really cared about me." said Blaze.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
Raye disinfected the cut and put the bandage on her knee. "There now, all better. But next time try to be more careful."  
  
Annika stopped crying. "Thank you, Mama."  
  
"We'll always be here for you." Chad said. The family then went into a group hug.  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"They just wanted me to stay out of trouble." said Bolt.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
"Honey, I just want to say that even though what you did wasn't the best way; I'm proud you stood up for your friends." said Ken.  
  
"Really, you're proud of me?" asked Daisy.  
  
"Of course, pumpkin." said Lita. "You can come out of the corner now. Just try not to fight any more."  
  
"Yes Mommy, can I help make dinner?"  
  
"We'd love it." her parents said.  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"They weren't cruel, they were very loving." said Dazzle.  
  
[Flashback]  
  
"Honey, what you did was wrong but we still love you and always will." Jamie said.  
  
"Yes, I now know it was wrong to play that practical joke." said Gloria.  
  
"Honey can you turn around?" said Mina. She looked into her mirror. "See that beautiful little girl? I punished her so that one day she would grow up to be a good person. Because beauty on the outside eventually fades but inner beauty lasts forever."  
  
"I love you both."  
  
"We know sweetcake." said her parents.  
  
[End flashback]  
  
"I don't want to do this anymore." said Eclipse. "I want to be healed, I don't care what Miss Ursa thinks."  
  
"We want to come along too." said Chill.  
  
"We all want to be healed now." said Blaze.  
  
"Let's go." said Bolt.  
  
"I want to be healed as soon as I can." said Dazzle.  
  
Just then they heard Ursa bellow. "All of you mugs come down here now!"  
  
They teleported down to the floor. "Yes Miss Ursa."  
  
"I have somebody's I want you to meet."  
  
The next things they saw were Merlor's glowing eyes then blackness.  
  
~*~  
  
At the Shrine Serena began the meeting. "I know that you're still very upset on how you've been treating them."  
  
"Upset, barely begins to describe It." said Lita. "We almost killed our own flesh and blood!"  
  
"You didn't know." said Darien. "Stop beating yourselves up, what matters is how you deal with it now."  
  
"I have a plan." said Serena. "When the kittens talked to them about their past they started to come back. The next time they show up we have to continue doing that and they'll come back far enough to want to be healed by the crystal."  
  
"There's a problem with that." said Greg. "With Rini that's possible but we know next to nothing about the rest of them."  
  
"That's why I asked for the cats to be here." she looked at the kittens that were playfully dog piled on each other. "Talk with them about your child and you should learn enough to go on with."  
  
After Serena said her piece, the Knights started talked to the Scouts. "What is it?" asked Raye.  
  
"Well if they our kids then for them to be here than we'd all have to...well you know." said Chad.  
  
"Are saying you all want to..."asked Amy.  
  
"No! No, wait! What we meant to say was that it's pretty much a given that we'll get married." said Greg.  
  
"I've been thinking about that. It seems that was our destiny back in the silver millennium." said Mina.  
  
"When we started dating for real I hoped that it would turn into something more than a two month fling, but married and being the father of a little girl, it's a little much for me right now." said Jamie.  
  
"Me too, but they'll have great dads." said Lita.  
  
"But not as great as their moms." said Ken.  
  
Later, Amy and Greg spoke with Moonbeam. "What can you tell us about Chill?" said Amy. "No, I mean..."  
  
"Ariel, she's great." said Moonbeam. "She sometimes acts very mature and other times she wants to be babied. She's also smart, very smart."  
  
"I know where she gets that from." said Greg.  
  
Chad and Raye were talking to Stardust. "Her real name is Annika." said Stardust. "She's really nice but also very sensitive, she cries a lot."  
  
"Sounds like she'll get more from her father than her mother." said Chad.  
  
"Well, it's very rare but sometimes she has these really bad temper tantrums. We have to lock her in her room until she tires herself out."  
  
"Thanks for the warning." said Raye.  
  
Lita and Ken were talking to Crescent. "Daisy, she's strong, like the two of you. She likes to cook too."  
  
"Sounds like she takes after Me." said Lita.  
  
"Oh, and she fights, a lot."  
  
"Defiantly after you." said Ken.  
  
"Watch it!" said Lita.  
  
Mina and Jamie spoke with Sunspot. "Gloria and I always have so much fun pulling pranks and listening to really loud music. Although when we get into trouble she acts kinda rude." said Sunspot.  
  
"Where did I go wrong?!" said Mina.  
  
"Maybe she's adopted." said Jamie.  
  
"Don't worry." said Sunspot. "She's sweet, once you get to know her."  
  
After a little while they all had learned a bit about their future daughters. Just then an envelope was thrown in and stuck into the floor. Serena opened it and read the letter. "The time has come to end this. Meet the Wicked Ladies on top of the roof at this address if you dare."  
  
They all knew what they had to do.  
  
~*~  
  
They went to the top of the building transformed and found the Wicked Ladies there, but their eyes were glazed over and they didn't say anything when at first.  
  
"Rini, Ariel, Annika, Daisy, Gloria, We're here to help you." said Sailor Moon.  
  
"They aren't available right now." said Eclipse. "Would you like to leave a message?" Something about her voice wasn't right, like it was sinister and drained of life.  
  
"Rini, please!"  
  
"Sailor Moon wait!" said Sailor Mars. "I sense a dark presence!"  
  
"Very observant!" said Chill.  
  
"I knew that these fools were turning soft." said Blaze.  
  
"So I convinced them to fight." said Bolt.  
  
"By taking over their minds!" said Dazzle.  
  
"What is this?!" said Moon Knight. "Who are you?!"  
  
"I am the one who is controlling these worthless fools from my base. I am also the mastermind behind the attack on your world! I am Merlor, the wise and powerful!"  
  
"You took over their minds?!" said Sailor Venus.  
  
"Come out and fight, you coward!" said Jupiter Knight.  
  
"Why fight yourself when you can have others do it for you? It's one of the reasons I lived to such a ripe old age."  
  
"Why did you take them?!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"I hoped to cripple your friends by having them destroy their own children, but I am glad you found out. Now I have an unbeatable tactic! You can't bring yourselves to harm them but I control their every move and can attack at will, so I can only win and you can only lose!"  
  
"No!" said Mercury Knight. "Release them now!"  
  
"I can see through their eyes; I see my enemies who will fall, I see the prize for which I have come, I see a helpless planet waiting to be conquered and I see potential Nightmares in every crowd! Tell me which of your friends and family would make the best nightmare?"  
  
"Leave them out of this!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"Enough talking it's time to die!" The wicked Ladies attacked.  
  
"CRYSTAL HEALING FORCE!"  
  
The crystal had no effect. "I don't understand!"  
  
Sailor Mercury scanned them. "It won't work while he has control! We have to break it somehow!"  
  
"Easier said then done." said Venus Knight.  
  
~*~  
  
Back at the Blackstar Fortress Merlor was in a meditative trance. Prim and Axel stood nearby. "So how long is he gonna be like that?" asked Axel.  
  
"As long as takes to beat the Sailor Scouts and Knights I guess." said Prim.  
  
In his mind Merlor worked each one to attack, there were no flaws in their movement. Everything was perfect. "Let us go!" said Rini.  
  
"I want my Mama!" said Annika.  
  
"I don't want to hurt them!" said Ariel.  
  
"You better let us go creep!" said Gloria.  
  
"Let me go or I'll really cream you!" said Daisy.  
  
"Silence slaves!" said Merlor. "You are just puppets and I am the puppeteer! I will use your bodies as I see fit! Your minds are weak and there is no way you can stop me even if you put your mental strengths together!"  
  
He continued to fight the battle from the safety of his lab.  
  
~*~  
  
The team tried to reach the girls while defending themselves. "Rini, you can beat this guy. Fight him!"  
  
"No she can't!" said the possessed Eclipse. "These brats are far too weak, especially when compared to my mental power!"  
  
Unknown to anyone Victor peeked through the roof access. "So what I overheard Prim and Axel say was true." Vega thought. "If Merlor thinks he can use these despicable tactics behind my back he is sadly mistaken." Vega cleared his mind and saw a mental image of the five girls in chains. "I can help you win." He told them.  
  
"Why should we trust you?" said Daisy.  
  
"Yes who are you?" asked Gloria.  
  
"A friend." said Vega. "Combine your efforts; an opportunity will soon present itself."  
  
"I trust him." said Rini.  
  
"So do I." said Annika.  
  
"We don't have anything to lose so let's try." said Ariel.  
  
Just then Merlor was beginning to lose control. "Serena! It's me!" said Eclipse in her usual voice.  
  
"Rini?!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"No! I am Merlor!" Eclipse said after Merlor regained control.  
  
"Mama!" said Blaze.  
  
"Be quiet!"  
  
"He's starting to lose control!" said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"I wanna go home!" said Dazzle.  
  
"You will finish this!"  
  
"Dad, please help me!" said Bolt.  
  
"Shut up and fight!"  
  
"You have to stop him!" said Chill.  
  
"They can't!"  
  
The five of them then said. "Please, heal us!"  
  
"I won't let anyone else claim what should rightfully be mine!"  
  
"It like they're trying to break free but he's too strong for them." said Sailor Mars.  
  
"You can do it!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
~*~  
  
"So you're working together!" said Merlor in the physic plain. "But I have far more strength here than anyone!"  
  
"I can't allow this any longer!" said Vega.  
  
"What are you doing here?!"  
  
"I'm stopping you from doing this terrible thing. You may be stronger than I am in this place, but not when splitting your concentration in five separate directions. Let's see if you can control them and handle a direct mental attack from me!"  
  
Vega sent a physic bolt toward Merlor.  
  
"UGH!" said Merlor as he was flung toward a wall in the fortress.  
  
"Uncle Merlor!" said Prim.  
  
"Are you alright?" asked Axel.  
  
"Does it look like I'm alright?!" said Merlor.  
  
Vega's shadowed face appeared in the doorway. "Let this be a lesson to you Merlor. I expect my orders to be obeyed. I won't allow permanent harm to the people of Earth and no more running things from behind my back." Vega left.  
  
Merlor turned to Prim and Axel. "I don't know how or why, but I know this is entirely your fault!"  
  
~*~  
  
The Wicked Ladies fell on the ground unconscious. Sailor Moon took the opportunity. "Let's try this again!"  
  
"CRYSTAL HEALING FORCE!"  
  
The five turned back into little girls. Serena went over to them. The other four girls seemed to be the same age as Rini. "They're fine, just asleep."  
  
The rest of them went to the girl who would be their daughter. They started to wake up.  
  
"Uh, what?" said Ariel.  
  
"Hey Ariel." said Greg.  
  
"Papa where am I?"  
  
"Looks like she doesn't remember anything right now." said Amy. "But it should come back in time."  
  
"Hello Annika." said Raye.  
  
"Mama, Papa?" asked Annika.  
  
"Not yet." said Chad. "But someday."  
  
"Mom, why are we on a rooftop?" asked Daisy.  
  
"It's a long story." said Lita.  
  
"But we have plenty of time for that later." said Ken.  
  
"Mom, Dad, I had the worst nightmare." said Gloria.  
  
"It over now." said Mina.  
  
"We're just glad you're safe." said Jamie.  
  
Rini was the only one who remembered what happened right away. "I'm so sorry about everything I done!" she cried.  
  
"Its ok." said Darien.  
  
"It was only when I remembered my friends after history changed that I became her again. When the Knights appeared, history changed and they were able to be born."  
  
"Then you only became her to look after your friends." said Serena.  
  
"Yes and we'd still be under Merlor's control if it weren't for that Silver-haired guy."  
  
"Silver hair?!"  
  
"Yes, why do you ask?"  
  
"Nothing." She looked in the sky and thought. {He's out there still looking after me. My big brother had helped us.} She then turned to join the others in leaving the rooftop. "Funny, we already feel like family."  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Looks like things are finally beginning to look up! Does this mean that they come crashing down again? Keep reading and find out! 


	14. The Strength to Bear

Richforce: I took the holidays off but now I'm back! All characters belong to their respective owners.  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter 14: The Strength to Bear  
  
"Are you sure?" asked Serena.  
  
"Yes." said Rini. "They came here because they're also training to be Sailor Scouts."  
  
"Are you sure they can transform?"  
  
"Yes I remember when we left they were given lockets like mine."  
  
[Flashback]  
  
"I'm scared Rini!" Diana cried. "Mama, Papa, they're gone! What will we do? How will I tell the others?"  
  
"It's going to be ok. Mama will help, she's just got to!" Rini kept running until she got to the room that would serve as their last refuge, The Gates of Time. Her mother and father were waiting for her with the Guardian Scouts and Knights, their children clinging to them for support. They closed the door behind them knowing it wouldn't hold for long. "Mama, Luna and Artemis, they're dead! Everyone's dead!"  
  
"Don't cry." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "We are safe for now."  
  
"Small Lady." said Neo-King Endymion. "You're mother and I have something important for you to know."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Our kingdom is doomed." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "The timeline has somehow been altered and this is the result."  
  
"No! It can't end this way, it can't!"  
  
"Rini, get a hold of yourself!" said Neo-King Endymion. "You have to go back both for your own safety and to keep this from happening."  
  
"How will I keep it from happening?"  
  
"We don't know." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "But there is something else you'll have to do there. The time has come for your friends to start training to become Sailor Scouts, they will be going with you and you will have to lead them. Understand?"  
  
"But I'm not ready! I can't be a leader!"  
  
"You are ready and I know that you will make a great leader!" said Neo-King Endymion.  
  
The other girls each received a locket from their parents like Rini's. "Please don't make us go!" they said.  
  
"We want you to be safe. We know you'll make us proud." Their parents said.  
  
"There isn't much time left! Go now!" Just then the doors broke in and Ingots fired their weapons and killed the Scouts and Knights.  
  
"No!" screamed Rini. Her friends' reaction was even worse.  
  
Neo-King Endymion tried fighting them off and while he was able to take quite a few for every one he destroyed twenty more came in its place. "We will always love you!"  
  
"Go! I know that you can do It." said Neo-Queen Serenity. "You'll all carry our legacy well! Take our love with you!" Then both of Rini's parents were hit.  
  
"No! Mama, Papa!"  
  
"I will always love you small lady..." Then they both died.  
  
"MAMA! PAPA!" Her friends then carried her through the gates.  
  
[End Flashback]  
  
"I know they can help us!" said Rini.  
  
"Unfortunately their ordeal has shook them up severely." said Darien. "Remembering the loss of their parents and becoming the Wicked Ladies has gotten them pretty depressed."  
  
"The guys are trying their best, but its slow going." said Serena.  
  
"They have to get better!" said Rini. "They just have too!"  
  
~*~  
  
At Amy's house Ariel kept reading books to enter her private little world. They managed to convince Amy's parents that she had a little sister. "You can't keep hiding in books forever." Amy said.  
  
"Nothing can me hurt here." said Ariel. "No one can make me do anything bad."  
  
"I used to do that all the time, but it just pushes the hurt away for a short time."  
  
"I miss my Mama and Papa. I keep thinking that this is just a bad dream; that I'll just wake up and Mama will rock me in her chair so I can go back to sleep. But they're gone, really gone."  
  
"We'll see if we can change that ok?"  
  
Ariel kept reading her book.  
  
Amy sighed.  
  
~*~  
  
"Ugh!" Daisy kept punching a bag set up in Lita's apartment. It helped a little but not enough, she soon stopped and started to cry. "If only I was stronger, I could have saved them! But I weak, so weak that I was tricked by the very same people who took Mom and Dad away from me!"  
  
"It's not your fault Daisy." said Lita. "You would have died too if you stayed."  
  
"You're just saying that!"  
  
Lita tired to take a different approach. She took Daisy to Rex who was watching American football on satellite TV. "You call that a defense!?" Rex yelled. "Get it together!"  
  
"Rex, Daisy has a real problem."  
  
He muted the game and turned to Daisy. "What's wrong Daisy?"  
  
They tricked Rex into thinking that Daisy was their cousin and after hearing a story from Lita that was close enough to the truth he came up with something to say. "I know that what you went through must have been tough but you can't let it get you down. It's great big world out there! But as big as the world seems it's just tiny speck of dust in the galaxy. And past that are stars, trillions and trillions of them, the problems we face in our lives are insignificant when you compare them to the vastness of the universe! Does that make you feel better?"  
  
Lita thought to herself. "I shouldn't be surprised that he would make a good uncle, he's already a great brother!"  
  
"No, it doesn't." said Daisy.  
  
Rex shrugged and turned to Lita. "Well I'm out of ideas." He then restored the sound on the TV.  
  
"Then again I forgot that he's still Rex." Lita thought.  
  
She took Daisy back to the punching bag as Rex yelled at the TV. "Alright now we're getting...what, Pass Interference?! What game's the Ref watching?!"  
  
~*~  
  
Mina opened the door behind which very loud music was playing, she found Gloria jumping on her bed. Mina turned off the radio.  
  
"Hey! I was listening to that!"  
  
"Dad is making a conference call and he sent me to turn down the music."  
  
"He's not my dad!"  
  
"Ok, your grandfather."  
  
"He's not my grandpa yet and you're not my mom yet either!"  
  
{For whatever I did to deserve this brat, I'm sorry.} Mina thought.  
  
"Don't you have any good music here?"  
  
"You were just blasting the best rock and roll song this year just now!"  
  
"Talk about stone age music! What about Jizz or Proto?"  
  
"We haven't come up with those genres yet. Aren't you just a little sad about what happened?"  
  
"You expect me to get all teary eyed for something some bad guys made me do? That I'm stuck here? That I lost a mom and dad who spanked me then grounded me for a month just for a tiny little joke on their wedding anniversary?" sniffled on the last one, and then the dam broke. "That I never told them I was sorry?!"  
  
Mina held her as she cried. "You really miss them don't you?"  
  
"'I'm sorry, why was that so hard for me to say?"  
  
"I'm sure they knew, I'd know and Jamie would know."  
  
Gloria continued to weep.  
  
~*~  
  
"Mama, Papa!?" yelled Annika. She turned a corner at the shrine and found Chad and Raye. "I thought I lost you again!" she ran up to Raye and hugged her leg tightly.  
  
Raye was getting a little uncomfortable with it. "You can't just stay with us all the time; you're supposed to be my 'little sister' for a while."  
  
"But I want things to go to the way they were before! The three of us, together and happy."  
  
"We aren't the people you know." said Chad. "They had experiences we haven't yet."  
  
"But you haven't punished me badly for what I've done as Blaze just like Mama and Papa wouldn't..."  
  
"That's because they mixed up your head." said Raye. "You couldn't help it."  
  
"Just don't go away! Don't leave me like they did!"  
  
Raye stroked Annika's hair and worried.  
  
~*~  
  
Back at the Blackstar fortress Ursa was kneeling before Vega. "It ain't my fault! I didn't know what Merlor was doin!"  
  
"And yet you were on a news report with the Wicked Ladies." said Vega.  
  
"Well I didn't know were he got 'em! Prince Vega, you know I am loyal to you's, that's why you called me here in the first place!"  
  
"Very well, you may prove it to me. Confront them in battle yourself and no tricks from Merlor this time. Remember I don't want them killed."  
  
"No promises." said Ursa. "I can't help it if I happen to be too tough for 'em." She left after she was dismissed and heard Prim and Axel taunting her.  
  
"I've heard that Vega isn't happy with you either!" said Prim.  
  
"That pencil-neck can't pin nothing on me!"  
  
"So are going to fight them again?" asked Axel. "You couldn't beat them last time."  
  
"I had to retreat cause Eclipse went bonkers. This time nothing is holding me back!" Ursa then left.  
  
~*~  
  
Serena had an idea. They would all take the kids out to make them feel better. It would be a full day of actives planned from what they knew about the girls' interests. However, after ice cream the arcade and a movie nothing seemed to get them to feel better.  
  
"Are you sure this next stop will work?" asked a skeptical Serena.  
  
"I know it will." said Amy.  
  
"The natural history museum isn't exactly my idea of a good time." said Ken.  
  
"I know Ariel will like it and we are going to see the fossil exhibit. All kids like dinosaurs."  
  
"Unless they happen to be trying to eat you." said Jamie.  
  
"Not much chance of that happening." said Greg.  
  
"You guys still have a lot to learn!" Lita joked.  
  
They went up to the museum and into the fossil exhibit. They all saw a skeleton of a tyrannosaurus and stared in awe. "Look here!" said Amy as she read a plaque. "Some paleontologists believe that this guy here had to eat the equivalent weight of three cows a day in order to stay in top condition. Isn't that interesting Ariel?"  
  
Ariel just shrugged and clung to Greg.  
  
"Anyone?"  
  
She was met with Silence until Serena said. "Three cows a day that sure would be a problem for beef ranchers."  
  
Amy sighed.  
  
"Come on!" said Darien. "Aren't any of you going have a little fun here?"  
  
"Well I plan to!" said Ursa as came in through a wall. "It's fitting that I should find you's here. Now I'm gonna make YOU extinct!"  
  
"But there are innocent people here!" said Raye.  
  
"I scared them off so I can force-feed you thirty-one separate flavors of pain without interruption!"  
  
"Well doesn't look like we have much choice." said Serena.  
  
"MOON INFINITY POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"MARS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"VENUS ASTRAL POWER!"  
  
"MOON REGAL POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"MARS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"VENUS NOBLE POWER!"  
  
"MOON FAIRY POWER!"  
  
"This time no holds barred!" said Ursa.  
  
"Sailor Moon I have to honest with you." said Sailor Mercury. "I haven't come up with a plan to beat her so I'm open to suggestions everyone."  
  
"Don't worry." said Sailor Mini-Moon. "This time you have..."she turned around to find that her friends didn't transform yet. "Uh, why haven't you changed yet?"  
  
"Isn't it obvious?" said Ursa. "They're too scared to fight me, a smart choice on their part."  
  
"Please, you've got to help!"  
  
"We can't." said Ariel.  
  
"We haven't had any training." said Daisy.  
  
"We'd just get in the way." said Annika.  
  
"It's not like there is anything we can do against her." said Gloria.  
  
"They're right you know." said Ursa. "They can't help you, you know why? It's because I'm invincible!"  
  
"MEGATON FIST!"  
  
Her attack blew the scouts and knights through the wall to the courtyard outside.  
  
"No holding back this time!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"MOON POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY POWER!"  
  
"MARS POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER POWER!"  
  
"VENUS POWER!"  
  
"SAILOR PLANET ATTACK!"  
  
"Forget so soon?" said Ursa.  
  
"MAXIMUM ENDURANCE!"  
  
Once again she handled the attack with ease. "Got anything else?"  
  
As she was talking the news van pulled up. "We're going on live Gary!" said Vivian. "So get some good shots!"  
  
"I'd better be getting hazard pay for this!" said Gary as he thought. {But what I really want to do is help those guys.}  
  
Moon Knight had a plan. "Sailor Knights, maybe we can combine our powers as well."  
  
"It's worth a shot." said Jupiter Knight.  
  
They combined their powers and attacked.  
  
"SOLAR BRIGADE RUSH!"  
  
"MAXIMUM ENDURANCE!"  
  
The Knights charged full on but were tossed back when they hit Ursa. "You can't beat me! I brought entire worlds to their knees, without even flinching!"  
  
"MEGATON FIST!"  
  
"It seems hopeless." said Sailor Venus. "She's just too strong."  
  
"No!" said Sailor Moon even though the same thing was going through her mind. "We can't let her win. "  
  
"Think they can stop her?" asked Gary.  
  
"I'm not sure a tank can stop her." said Vivian.  
  
~*~  
  
As she watched while trying to convince the other girls Sailor Mini- Moon made up her mind. "That's it! I'm not going to let that bully push them around anymore!"  
  
"But Rini you'll get yourself killed!" said Ariel as they tried to hold her back.  
  
"You're the only one we got left from home!" said Annika.  
  
"She'll crush you!" said Daisy.  
  
"Don't do it dummy!" said Gloria.  
  
"Enough!!" yelled Sailor Mini-Moon. The girls let go in shock.  
  
"I can't just stay here and do nothing! The people who are going to be your parents are going to die if she isn't stopped, so if you want stay here and sit on your pity pots go ahead, I'm going to help!" She rushed into battle as the girls watched in horror.  
  
"Oh, the shrimp is going to fight I am so scared!" said Ursa sarcastically. "So you really think that you can help them or do you just want this?!" She flashed the time key. "The only way to get it is to beat me!"  
  
"Even if I can't win..."said Sailor Mini-Moon. "I won't lose! Not if my friends fight with me." she added the last part with a little doubt.  
  
"Then what are you gonna do?! Throw your diapers at me?!"  
  
Steam rose from Rini. "I'll never forgive you for what you made us become!"  
  
"Sorry but I was just following orders, my hands are clean."  
  
"You never really cared about us! You just wanted to use us!"  
  
"Damn right! I wanted to smash the sailor twerps as soon as I could, but no! I had to play babysitter for some weak little brats so the aforementioned twerps could destroy them and then become emotional cripples! I'm gonna enjoy crushing you into powder!"  
  
"MEGATON FIST!"  
  
Rini took the hit and weakly got back up and counter attacked.  
  
"MOON GLOWING STARBURST!"  
  
Ursa took the hit without so much as batting an eyelash. "Was that supposed to do something?!"  
  
Back in the museum the girls were beginning to understand.  
  
"We were being used!" said Daisy.  
  
"Mama, Papa, they would want me to make up for what I've done!" said Annika.  
  
"I didn't want to be a scout, but I can't just stay back anymore!" said Gloria.  
  
"We have to fight, to save our friend and our parents!" said Ariel.  
  
They took the lockets their Parents gave to them and knew what to do on instinct.  
  
"MERCURY LULLABY POWER!"  
  
"MARS LULLABY POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER LULLABY POWER!"  
  
"VENUS LULLABY POWER!"  
  
Their uniform's colors were the reverse of those of the Sailor Scouts. Mini-Mercury's was light blue with a dark blue ribbon; Mini-Mars was purple with a red ribbon; Mini-Jupiter's was pink with a Green ribbon and Mini-Venus' was navy blue with an orange ribbon.  
  
"I knew that you would come and help!" said Mini-Moon.  
  
Ursa just snarled "So you think you actually stand a chance?!"  
  
"No." said Mini-Mercury. "But anything is better than sitting back and let you have your way!"  
  
"Well like it or not, it's gonna happen!"  
  
Sailor Mercury went over a scan. "I found her weak point! Let's pretend that we're going to do a Planet Attack."  
  
"How will that help us?" asked Sailor Jupiter.  
  
"It will make her think that we're doing a real one."  
  
"MOON POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY POWER!"  
  
"MARS POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER POWER!"  
  
"VENUS POWER!"  
  
"Not this again!" said Ursa. "Try something different!"  
  
"MAXIMUM ENDURANCE!"  
  
Ursa prepared to brace herself and didn't notice the Mini-Scouts.  
  
"MOON GLOWING STARBURST!"  
  
"MERCURY SNOWFLAKE SHARDS!"  
  
Dozens of small snowflakes flew from Mini-Mercury's hands.  
  
"MARS SCARLET EMBERS!"  
  
A number of tiny flames flew from Mini-Mars.  
  
"JUPITER ELECTRIC SPARKS!"  
  
Mini-Jupiter fired three star shaped lightning bolts in a spiral pattern.  
  
"VENUS BEAUTIFUL FLASH!"  
  
Mini-Venus was encased in a ball of light that spread outward from her.  
  
Ursa was hit from behind and was sent flying into a wall. {I don't understand.} Ursa thought. {How could such weak attacks do this much damage to me?} The wall then collapsed on top of her body.  
  
"She could only concentrate that shield forward and it took a lot of her energy to use so a weak attack from behind could finish her." said Sailor Mercury.  
  
"We did it!" said Mini-Moon.  
  
"Maybe we can save our home after all!" said Mini-Mercury.  
  
"I fought her even without Mama's help!" said Mini-Mars.  
  
"Maybe I'm stronger than I gave myself credit for." said Mini- Jupiter.  
  
"I didn't want to be a scout at first but it was actually kind of fun!" said Mini-Venus.  
  
The scouts and knights moved closer to congratulate them when Ursa burst out of the rubble. The worst she suffered from was a lip bleeding with thin white blood. "That wasn't very nice!"  
  
"It's over!" said Sailor Moon. "We know how to beat you now!"  
  
"Yeah you can't beat us!" said Mini-Moon.  
  
"You girls have forgotten lesson #3. 'Always keep a surprise up your sleeve.' I'll now show you my real power! Ever hear of the phrase beauty is only skin deep?"  
  
"You could never understand real beauty!" said Sailor Venus.  
  
"And you couldn't understand real strength until now!"  
  
"DARK EVOLUTION!"  
  
Ursa's body transformed into that of large bear with blue fur, red eyes and huge claws. "You saw the beauty side of me, now I proudly introduce the beast!"  
  
"SEVER SWIPE!"  
  
Ursa swiped her claw missing but a second later a tree in front of her fell when a perfect diagonal cut appeared. "Don't feel too bad! Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you!"  
  
"I don't think even a Planet attack could beat her now!" said Sailor Mars.  
  
"Maybe if we did it with you and the knights." said Mini-Mars.  
  
"We can do that?" asked Jupiter Knight. "Combine our powers with theirs?"  
  
"I heard Mom and Dad say that sometimes they had to do It." said Mini- Jupiter.  
  
"Then let's give it a try!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
The knights and mini-scouts joined in the formation.  
  
"MOON POWER!"  
  
"MERCURY POWER!"  
  
"MARS POWER!"  
  
"JUPITER POWER!"  
  
"VENUS POWER!"  
  
"SAILOR PLANET ATTACK!"  
  
Ursa was actually worried about the incoming attack. "I can't block something that strong! This can't be happening!"  
  
The attack hit her as she roared and fell on the ground.  
  
"It's finally over." said Venus Knight.  
  
"I guess we can now handle whatever else Merlor throws at us." said Sailor Jupiter.  
  
Ursa was slowly clawing her way toward them. "Oh no, you won't!"  
  
"You don't know when to give up do you?!" said Sailor Moon.  
  
"You see I'm not just the darkness warrior of corruption, I'm also a member of the Black Vanguard!"  
  
"Black Vanguard!?"  
  
"The Blackstar Empire's most elite fighting force! There are now three more you'll have to deal with and they won't be too happy about this!"  
  
"We beat you so we can beat them!" said Moon Knight.  
  
"You just got lucky, I'm so annoyed..."A column of blue light shot from her body and four more spiraled around the first when they went up Ursa vanished leaving the time key behind.  
  
"Our future may be filled with uncertainty but we can still triumph if we work together!" said Sailor Moon. They all put their hands together as a sign of their commitment.  
  
~*~  
  
"They did what?!" yelled Axel.  
  
"Defeated Ursa." said Vega. "But our plan is not yet compromised."  
  
"Especially now that we are here!" said haughty voice that belonged to a woman who had gold feathers instead of hair, a long beak-shaped nose and a bird of prey on her arm. Two black compass star emblems covered her breasts.  
  
"Like who are you?" asked Prim.  
  
"Aquila, darkness warrior of cruelty and this is my beloved Altair. " The eagle screeched.  
  
"I never liked Ursa, but this insult to the Vanguard cannot be forgiven!" said harsh voice. It belonged to a man covered in robes with the compass star emblem on his chest and whose face was covered with mask that had a scorpion painted on it. The scorpion's tail curled around the right eye. "I am Scorpio, darkness warrior of deception."  
  
"Now we can continue the search for the vault." said Vega.  
  
"But Draco, darkness warrior of wrath, isn't here yet!" said Merlor.  
  
"He said the matter didn't require his personal attention." said Aquila.  
  
"But we should be able to handle them." said Scorpio.  
  
"You may leave now." said Vega. After they all left Vega stood up from his throne and stood in the light reveling his face as Victor's. "I'm sorry if you have to die to restore the Moon Kingdom Serena. But I will always love you, my younger sister, my little star." Just then the mark of the Lunan Royal Family glowed on his forehead as he stared out into the infinite reaches of space.  
  
~*~  
  
Richforce: Whoa, timeout! Vega is the older brother Serena had in the Moon Kingdom?! Just what happened to him and how does he think opening the vault will restore the Moon Kingdom?! The answers to these questions and more in Vega Saga part two: Vanguard. Coming soon!" 


End file.
